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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6371.txt b/6371.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d1e0e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/6371.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6392 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Purgatory of St. Patrick +by Pedro Calderon de la Barca +#3 in our series by Pedro Calderon de la Barca + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Purgatory of St. Patrick + +Author: Pedro Calderon de la Barca + +Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6371] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 2, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PURGATORY OF ST. PATRICK *** + + + + +Produced by Sue Asscher asschers@bigpond.com + + + + + +CALDERON'S DRAMAS. + + + +THE PURGATORY OF ST. PATRICK. + + + +NOW FIRST TRANSLATED FULLY FROM THE SPANISH IN THE METRE +OF THE ORIGINAL. + +BY + +DENIS FLORENCE MAC-CARTHY. + + + +LONDON: HENRY S. KING & CO., +65 CORNHILL, AND 12, PATERNOSTER ROW. +1873. + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +Two of the dramas contained in this volume are the most celebrated of +all Calderon's writings. The first, "La Vida es Sueno", has been +translated into many languages and performed with success on almost +every stage in Europe but that of England. So late as the winter of +1866-7, in a Russian version, it drew crowded houses to the great +theatre of Moscow; while a few years earlier, as if to give a signal +proof of the reality of its title, and that Life was indeed a Dream, +the Queen of Sweden expired in the theatre of Stockholm during the +performance of "La Vida es Sueno". In England the play has been much +studied for its literary value and the exceeding beauty and lyrical +sweetness of some passages; but with the exception of a version by +John Oxenford published in "The Monthly Magazine" for 1842, which +being in blank verse does not represent the form of the original, no +complete translation into English has been attempted. Some scenes +translated with considerable elegance in the metre of the original +were published by Archbishop Trench in 1856; but these comprised only +a portion of the graver division of the drama. The present version +of the entire play has been made with the advantages which the +author's long experience in the study and interpretation of Calderon +has enabled him to apply to this master-piece of the great Spanish +poet. All the forms of verse have been preserved; while the +closeness of the translation may be inferred from the fact, that not +only the whole play but every speech and fragment of a speech are +represented in English in the exact number of lines of the original, +without the sacrifice, it is to be hoped, of one important idea. + +A note by Hartzenbusch in the last edition of the drama published at +Madrid (1872), tells that "La Vida es Sueno", is founded on a story +which turns out to be substantially the same as that with which +English students are familiar as the foundation of the famous +Induction to the "Taming of the Shrew". Calderon found it however in +a different work from that in which Shakespeare met with it, or +rather his predecessor, the anonymous author of "The Taming of a +Shrew", whose work supplied to Shakespeare the materials of his own +comedy. + +On this subject Malone thus writes. "The circumstance on which the +Induction to the anonymous play, as well as to the present Comedy +[Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew"], is founded, is related (as +Langbaine has observed) by Heuterus, "Rerum Burgund." lib. iv. The +earliest English original of this story in prose that I have met with +is the following, which is found in Goulart's "Admirable and +Memorable Histories", translated by E. Grimstone, quarto, 1607; but +this tale (which Goulart translated from Heuterus) had undoubtedly +appeared in English, in some other shape, before 1594: + +"Philip called the good Duke of Burgundy, in the memory of our +ancestors, being at Bruxelles with his Court, and walking one night +after supper through the streets, accompanied by some of his +favourites, he found lying upon the stones a certaine artisan that +was very dronke, and that slept soundly. It pleased the prince in +this artisan to make trial of the vanity of our life, whereof he had +before discoursed with his familiar friends. He therefore caused +this sleeper to be taken up, and carried into his palace; he commands +him to be layed in one of the richest beds; a riche night cap to be +given him; his foule shirt to be taken off, and to have another put +on him of fine holland. When as this dronkard had digested his wine, +and began to awake, behold there comes about his bed Pages and +Groomes of the Duke's Chamber, who drawe the curteines, make many +courtesies, and being bare-headed, aske him if it please him to rise, +and what apparell it would please him to put on that day. They bring +him rich apparell. This new Monsieur amazed at such courtesie, and +doubting whether he dreamt or waked, suffered himselfe to be drest, +and led out of the chamber. There came noblemen which saluted him +with all honour, and conduct him to the Masse, where with great +ceremonie they give him the booke of the Gospell, and the Pixe to +kisse, as they did usually to the Duke. From the Masse they bring +him back unto the pallace; he washes his hands, and sittes down at +the table well furnished. After dinner, the Great Chamberlain +commands cards to be brought with a great summe of money. This Duke +in imagination playes with the chief of the Court. Then they carry +him to walke in the gardein, and to hunt the hare, and to hawke. +They bring him back into the pallace, where he sups in state. +Candles being light the musitions begin to play; and the tables taken +away, the gentlemen and gentlewomen fell to dancing. Then they +played a pleasant comedie, after which followed a Banket, whereat +they had presently store of Ipocras and pretious wine, with all sorts +of confitures, to this prince of the new impression; so as he was +dronke, and fell soundlie asleepe. Hereupon the Duke commanded that +he should be disrobed of all his riche attire. He was put into his +old ragges, and carried into the same place, where he had been found +the night before; where he spent that night. Being awake in the +morning, he began to remember what had happened before; he knewe not +whether it were true indeede, or a dream that had troubled his +braine. But in the end, after many discourses, he concludes that ALL +WAS BUT A DREAME that had happened unto him; and so entertained his +wife, his children, and his neighbours, without any other +apprehension." + +It is curious to find that the same anecdote which formed the +Induction to the original "Taming of a Shrew", and which, from a +comic point of view, Shakespeare so wonderfully developed in his own +comedy, Calderon invested with such solemn and sublime dignity in "La +Vida es Sueno". He found it, as Senor Hartzenbusch points out in the +edition of 1872 already quoted, in the very amusing "Viage +Entretenido" of Augustin de Rojas, which was first published in 1603. +Hartzenbusch refers to the modern edition of Rojas, Madrid, 1793, +tomo I, pp. 261, 262, 263, but in a copy of the Lerida edition of +1615, in my own possession, I find the anecdote at folios 118, 119, +120. There are some slight differences between the version of Rojas +and that of Goulart, but the incidents and the persons are the same. +The conclusion to which the artizan arrived at, in the version of +Goulart, that all had been a dream, is expressed more strongly by the +Duke himself in the story as told by Rojas. + +"Y dijo entonces el Duque: 'veis aqui, amigos, "Lo que es el Mundo: +Todo es un Sueno", pues esto verdaderamente ha pasado por este, como +habeis visto, y le parece que lo ha sonado.'" -- + +The story in all probability came originally from the East. Mr. Lane +in his translation of the Thousand and One Nights gives a very +interesting narrative which he believes to be founded on an +historical fact in which Haroun Al Raschid plays the part of the good +Duke of Burgundy, and Abu-l-Hasan the original of Christopher Sly. +The gravity of the treatment and certain incidents in this Oriental +story recall more strongly Calderon's drama than the Induction to the +"Taming of the Shrew". "La Vida es Sueno" was first published either +at the end of 1635 or beginning of 1636. + +The "Aprobacion" for its publication along with eleven other dramas +(not nine as Archbishop Trench has stated), was signed on the 6th of +November in the former year by the official licenser, Juan Bautista +de Sossa. The volume was edited by the poet's brother, Don Joseph +Calderon. So scarce has this first authorised collection of any of +Calderon's dramas become, that a Spanish writer Don Vicente Garcia de +la Huerta, in his "Teatro Espanol" (Parte Segunda, tomo 3o), denies +the existence of this volume of 1635, and states that it did not +appear until 1640. As if to corroborate this view, Barrera in his +"Catalogo del Teatro antiguo Espanol" gives the date 1640 to the +"Primera parte de comedias de Calderon" edited by his brother Joseph. + +There can be no doubt, however, that the volume appeared in 1635 or +1636 as stated. In 1637 Don Joseph Calderon published the "Second +Part" of his brother's dramas containing like the former volume +twelve plays.* In his dedication of this volume to D. Rodrigo de +Mendoza, Joseph Calderon expressly alludes to the First Part of his +brother's comedies which he had "printed." "En la primera Parte, +Excellentissimo Senor, de las comedias que imprimi de Don Pedro +Calderon de La Barca, mi hermano," etc. This of course settles the +fact of the prior publication of the first Part. It is singular, +however, to find that the most famous of all Calderon's dramas should +have been frequently ascribed to Lope de Vega. So late as 1857 it is +given in an Italian version by Giovanni La Cecilia, under the title +of "La Vita e un Sogno", as a drama of Lope de Vega, with the date +1628. This of course is a mistake, but Senor Hartzenbusch, who makes +no allusion to this circumstance, admits that two dramas of Lope de +Vega, which it is presumed preceded the composition of Calderon's +play turn on very nearly the same incidents as those of "La Vida es +Sueno". These are "Lo que ha de ser", and "Barlan y Josafa". He +gives a passage from each of these dramas which seem to be the germ +of the fine lament of Sigismund, which the reader will find +translated in the present volume. + +[footnote] *In the library of the British Museum there is a fine copy +of this "Segunda Parte de Comedias de Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca" +Madrid, 1637. Mr. Ticknor mentions (1863) that he too had a copy of +this interesting volume. + +Senor Hartzenbusch, in the edition of Calderon's "La Vida es Sueno", +already referred to (Madrid, 1872), prints the passages from Lope de +Vega's two dramas, but in neither of them, he justly remarks, can we +find anything that at all corresponds to this "grandioso caracter de +Segismundo." + +The second drama in this volume, "The Wonderful Magician", is perhaps +better known to poetical students in England than even the first, +from the spirited fragment Shelley has left us in his "Scenes from +Calderon." The preoccupation of a subject by a great master throws +immense difficulties in the way of any one who ventures to follow in +the same path: but as Shelley allowed himself great licence in his +versification, and either from carelessness or an imperfect knowledge +of Spanish is occasionally unfaithful to the meaning of his author, +it may be hoped in my own version that strict fidelity both as to the +form as well as substance of the original may be some compensation +for the absence of those higher poetical harmonies to which many of +my readers will have been accustomed. + +"El Magico Prodigioso" appeared for the first time in the same volume +as "La Vida es Sueno", prepared for publication in 1635 by Don Joseph +Calderon. The translation is comprised in the same number of lines +as the original, and all the preceding remarks on "Life is a Dream", +whether in reference to the period of the first publication of the +drama in Spain, or the principles I kept in view while attempting +this version may be applied to it. As in the Case of "Life is a +Dream", "The Wonderful Magician" has previously been translated +entire by an English writer, ("Justina", by J.H. 1848); but as +Archbishop Trench truly observes, "the writer did not possess that +command of the resources of the English language, which none more +than Calderon requires." + +The Legend on which Calderon founded "El Magico Prodigioso" will be +found in Surius, "De probatis Sanctorum historiis", t. V. (Col. Agr. +1574), p. 351: "Vita et Martyrium SS. Cypriani et Justinae, autore +Simeone Metaphraste", and in Chapter cxlii, of the "Legenda Aurea" of +Jacobus de Voragine "De Sancta Justina virgine". + +The martyrdom of the Saints took place in the year 290, and their +festival is celebrated by the Church on the 26th of September. + +Mr. Ticknor in his History of Spanish Literature, 1863, volume ii. p. +369, says that the Wonder-working Magician is founded on "the same +legend on which Milman has founded his 'Martyr of Antioch.'" This is +a mistake of the learned writer. "The Martyr of Antioch" is founded +not on the history of St. Justina but of Saint Margaret, as Milman +himself expressly states. Chapter xciii., "De Sancta Margareta", in +the "Legenda Aurea" of Jacobus de Voragine contains her story. + +The third translation in this volume is that of "The Purgatory of St. +Patrick". This, though perhaps not so famous as the two preceding +dramas, is intended to be given by Don P. De la Escosura, in a +selection of Calderon's finest "comedias", now being edited by him +for the Spanish Academy, as the representative piece of its class -- +namely, the mystical drama founded on the lives of Saints. Mr. +Ticknor prefers it to the more celebrated "Devotion of the Cross," +and says that it "is commonly ranked among the best religious plays +of the Spanish theatre in the seventeenth century." + +In all that relates to the famous cave known through the middle ages +as the "Purgatory of Saint Patrick", as well as the Story of Luis +Enius -- the Owain Miles of Ancient English poetry -- Calderon was +entirely indebted to the little volume published at Madrid, in 1627, +by Juan Perez de Montalvan, entitled "Vida y Purgatorio de San +Patricio". This singular work met with immense success. It went +through innumerable editions, and continues to be reprinted in Spain +as a chap-book, down to the present day. I have the fifth impression +"improved and enlarged by the author himself," Madrid, 1628, the year +after its first appearance: also a later edition, Madrid, 1664. As +early as 1637 a French translation appeared at Brussels by "F. A. S. +Chartreux, a Bruxelles." In 1642 a second French translation was +published at Troyes, by "R. P. Francois Bouillon, de l'Ordre de S. +Francois, et Bachelier de Theologie." Mr. Thomas Wright in his +"Essay on St. Patrick's Purgatory," London, 1844, makes the singular +mistake of supposing that Bouillon's "Histoire de la Vie et +Purgatoire de S. Patrice" was founded on the drama of Calderon, it +being simply a translation of Montalvan's "Vida y Purgatorio," from +which, like itself, Calderon's play was derived. Among other +translations of Montalvan's work may be mentioned one in Dutch +(Brussels, 1668) and one in Portuguese (Lisbon, 1738). It was also +translated into German and Italian, but I find no mention of an +English version. For this reason I have thought that a few extracts +might be interesting, as showing how closely Calderon adhered even to +the language of his predecessor. + +In all that relates to the Purgatory, Montalvan's work is itself +chiefly compiled from the "Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum, seu vitae +et Actae sanctorum Hiberniae," Paris, 1624, fol. This work, which +has now become scarce, was written by Thomas Messingham an Irish +priest, the Superior of the Irish Seminary in Paris. No complete +English version appears to have been made of it, but a small tract in +English containing everything in the original work that referred to +St. Patrick's Purgatory was published at Paris in 1718. As this +tract is perhaps more scarce than even the Florilegium itself, the +account of the Purgatory as given by Messingham from the MS. of Henry +of Saltrey is reprinted in the notes to this drama in the quaint +language of the anonymous translator. Of this tract, "printed at +Paris in 1718" without the name of author, publisher or printer, I +have not been able to trace another copy. In other points of +interest connected with Calderon's drama, particularly to the +clearing up of the difficulty hitherto felt as to the confused list +of authorities at the end, the reader is also referred to the notes. + +The present version of "The Purgatory of Saint Patrick" is, with the +exception of a few unimportant lines, an entirely new translation. +It is made with the utmost care, imitating all the measures and +contained, like the two preceding dramas, in the exact number of +lines of the original. One passage of the translation which I +published in 1853 is retained in the notes, as a tribute of respect +to the memory of the late John Rutter Chorley, it having been +mentioned with praise by that eminent Spanish scholar in an elaborate +review of my earlier translations from Calderon, which appeared in +the "Athenaeum", Nov. 19 and Nov. 26, 1853. + +It only remains to add that the text I have followed is that of +Hartzenbusch in his edition of Calderon's Comedias, Madrid, 1856 +("Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles"). His arrangement of the scenes +has been followed throughout, thus enabling the reader in a moment to +verify for himself the exactness of the translation by a reference to +the original, a crucial test which I rather invite than decline. + +CLAPHAM PARK, Easter, 1873. + + + * * * * * + + + +THE + +PURGATORY OF ST. PATRICK. + + + + +TO + +AUBREY DE VERE, + +WHOSE + +"LEGENDS OF ST. PATRICK" + +ARE AMONG THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF ENGLISH POEMS, + +THIS VERSION + +OF THE CELEBRATED LEGEND OF ST. PATRICK'S PURGATORY, + +AS TOLD BY CALDERON, + +IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY + +THE AUTHOR. + + + + +PERSONS. + + * * * * * + + +EGERIUS, King of Ireland. +PATRICK. +LUIS ENIUS. +A GOOD ANGEL. +A BAD ANGEL. +PHILIP. +LEOGAIRE. +A CAPTAIN. +POLONIA, Daughter of the King. +LESBIA, her Sister. +PAUL, a Peasant. +LUCY, his Wife. +Two Canons Regular. +Two Peasants. +An Old Countryman. +A Muffled Figure. +Attendants, Friars, and others. + + * * * * * + +The Scene passes in Ireland, in the Court of King Egerius, and other parts. + + + +THE PURGATORY OF SAINT PATRICK. + + * * * * * + + +ACT THE FIRST. + +THE SEA-SHORE, WITH PRECIPITOUS CLIFFS. + +SCENE I. + +The King EGERIUS, clad in skins, LEOGAIRE, POLONIA, LESBIA, and a Captain. + +KING [furious]. Here let me die. Away! + +LEOGAIRE. Oh, stop, my lord! + +CAPTAIN. Consider . . . + +LESBIA. Listen . . . + +POLONIA. Stay . . . + +KING. Yes, from this rocky height, +Nigh to the sun, that with one starry light +Its rugged brow doth crown, +Headlong among the salt waves leaping down +Let him descend who so much pain perceives; +There let him raging die who raging lives. + +LESBIA. Why wildly seekest thou the sea? + +POLONIA. Thou wert asleep, my lord; what could it be? + +KING. Every torment that doth dwell +For ever with the thirsty fiends of hell -- +Dark brood of that dread mother, +The seven-necked snake, whose poisoned breath doth smother +The fourth celestial sphere; +In fine, its horror and its misery drear +Within me reach so far, +That I myself upon myself make war, +When in the arms of sleep +A living corse am I, for it doth keep +Such mastery o'er my life, that, as I dream, +A pale foreshadowing threat of coming death I seem. + +POLONIA. How could a dream, my lord, provoke you so? + +KING. Alas! my daughters, listen, you shall know. +From out the lips of a most lovely youth +(And though a miserable slave, in sooth +I dare not hurt him, and I speak his praise), +Well, from the mouth of a poor slave, a blaze +Of lambent lustre came, +Which mildly burned in rays of gentlest flame; +Till reaching you, +The living fire at once consumed ye two. +I stood betwixt ye both, and though I sought +To stay its fury, the strange fire would not +Molest or wound me, passing like the wind, +So that despairing, blind, +I woke from out a deep abysm +Of dream, a lethargy, a paroxysm; +But find my pains the same, +For still it seems to me I see that flame, +And flying, at every turn +See you consumed; but now I also burn.* + + +[footnote] *The Dream of Egerius, as given by Calderon, agrees +substantially with Jocelin's description, and differs only in one +slight particular (the number of the flames) from that in Montalvan's +"Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio". In the latter, the name of the +Irish prince to whom Patrick was sold is not given; in Jocelin he is +called "Milcho." Calderon was either ignorant of this, and gave the +king a name that was purely imaginary, or, considering it less +musical than he would wish, gave him the more harmonious one of +Egerio. The following is Jocelin's version: "And Milcho beheld a +vision in the night: and behold Patrick entered his palace as all on +fire, and the flames, issuing from his mouth, and from his nose, and +from his eyes, and from his ears, seemed to burn him; but Milcho +repelled from himself the flaming hair of the boy, nor did it prevail +to touch him any nearer; but the flame, being spread, turned aside to +the right and catching on his two little daughters, who were lying in +one bed, burned them even to ashes: then the south wind blowing +strongly dispersed their ashes over many parts of Ireland." -- +"Jocelin's Life of St. Patrick, translated by Swift" (Dublin, 1804), +pp. 17, 18. + + +LESBIA. Light phantoms these, +Chimeras which an entrance find with ease +Into the dreamer's brain. +[A trumpet sounds. +But wherefore sounds this trumpet? + +CAPTAIN. It is plain +Ships are approaching to our port below. + +POLONIA. Grant me thy leave, great lord, since thou dost know +A trumpet in my ear +Sounds like a siren's voice, serene and clear; +Ever to war inclined, +In martial music my chief joy I find; +Its clangour and its din +Lead my rapt senses on: for I may win +Through it my highest fame, +When soaring to the sun on waves of flame, +Or wings as swift, my proud name shall ascend, +There it may be with Pallas to contend. +[Aside. +A stronger motive urges me to go: +If it is Philip's ship I wish to know. +[Exit. + +LEOGAIRE. Descend, my lord, with me +Down where the foam-curled head of the blue sea +Bows at the base of this majestic hill, +Whose sands, like chains of gold, restrain its wilder will. + +CAPTAIN. Let it divert thy care, +This snow-white monster fair, +Whose waves of dazzling hue +Shape silver frames round mirrors sapphire blue. + +KING. Nothing can give relief; +Nothing can now divert me from my grief; +That mystic fire will give my life no rest,-- +My heart an Etna seems within my breast. + +LESBIA. Is any sight more fair? can aught surpass +That of a vessel breaking through the glass +Of crystal seas, and seeming there to be, +As with light share it cuts the azure mass, +A fish of the wind, a swift bird of the sea, +And being for two elements designed, +Flies in the wave and swims upon the wind? +But now no witchery +Were it to any eyes that sight to see; +For lo! the roused-up ocean, +Heaving with all its mountain waves in motion, +Wrinkles its haughty brow, +And suddenly awaking, +Neptune, his trident shaking, +Ruffles the beauteous face so sweet and calm but now. +Well may the sailor in his floating home +Expect a storm, for, lo! in heaven's high vault +Rise pyramids of ice, mountains of salt, +Turrets of snow, and palaces of foam. + +POLONIA returns. + +POLONIA. O dire misfortune! + +KING. What so suddenly +Has chanced, Polonia? + +POLONIA. This inconstant sea, +This Babel of wild waves that seeks heaven's gate, +So great its fury, and its rage so great, +Driven by a drought accursed, +(Who would have thought that waves themselves could thirst?) +Has swallowed in the depths of its dread womb, +But now, a numerous company, to whom +It consecrates below +Red sepulchres of coral, tombs of snow, +In silver-shining caves; +For from their prison out o'er all the waves +Has Aeolus the winds let loose, and they, +Without a law to guide them on their way, +Fell on that bark from which the trumpet rang, +A swan whose own sad obsequies it sang. +I from that cliff's stupendous height, +Which dares to intercept the great sun's light, +Looked full of hope along that vessel's track, +To see if it was Philip who came back; +Philip whose flag had borne upon the breeze +Thy royal arms triumphant through the seas; +When his sad wreck swept by, +And every sound was buried in a sigh, +His ruin seemed not wrought by seas or skies, +But by my lips and eyes, +Because my cries, the tears that made me blind, +Increased still more the water and the wind. + +KING. How! ye immortal deities, +Would you still try by threatenings such as these +What I can bear? +Is it your wish that I should mount and tear +This azure palace down, as if the shape +Of a new Nimrod* I assumed, to show +How on my shoulders might the world escape, +Nor as I gazed below +Feel any fear, though all the abysses under +Were rent with fire and flame, with lightning and with thunder. + + +[footnote] *Nimrod is here used for Atlas. "Nimrod aber ist hier, +was den Profandichtern und auch dem Calderon oft Atlas ist." -- +Schmidt, 'Die Schauspiele Calderon's' etc.,' p. 426. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE II. + +PATRICK, and then LUIS ENIUS. + +PATRICK [within]. Ah me! + +LEOGAIRE. Some mournful voice. + +KING. What's this? + +CAPTAIN. The form, +As of a man who has escaped the storm, +Swims yonder to the land. + +LESBIA. And strives to give a life-sustaining hand +Unto another wretch, when he +Appeared about to sink in death's last agony. + +POLONIA. Poor traveller from afar, +Whom evil fate and thy malignant star +On this far shore have cast, +Let my voice guide thee, if amid the blast +My accents thou canst hear; since it is only +To rouse thy courage that I speak to thee. +Come! + +[Enter PATRICK and LUIS ENIUS, clasping each other. + +PATRICK. Oh, God save me! + +LUIS. Oh, the devil save ME! + +LESBIA. They move my pity, these unhappy two. + +KING. Not mine, for what it is I never knew. + +PATRICK. Oh, sirs, if wretchedness +Can move most hearts to pity man's distress, +I will not think that here +A heart can be so cruel and severe +As to repel a wretch from out the wave. +Pity, for God's sake, at your feet I crave. + +LUIS. I don't, for I disdain it. +From God or man I never hope to gain it. + +KING. Say who you are; we then shall know +What hospitable care your needs we owe. +But first I will inform you of my name, +Lest ignorance of that perchance might claim +Exemption from respect, and words be said +Unworthy of the deference and the dread +That here my subjects show me, +Or wanting the due homage that you owe me. +I am the King Egerius, +The worthy lord of this small realm, for thus +I call it being mine; +Till 'tis the world, my sword shall not resign +Its valorous hope. The dress, +Not of a king, but of wild savageness +I wear: to testify, +Thus seeming a wild beast, how wild am I. +No god my worship claims; +I do not even know the deities' names: +Here they no service nor respect receive; +To die and to be born is all that we believe. +Now that you know how much you should revere +My royal state, say who you are. + +PATRICK. Then hear: +Patrick is my name, my country +Ireland, and an humble hamlet,* +Scarcely known to men, called Empthor,** +Is my place of birth: It standeth +Midway 'twixt the north and west, +On a mountain which is guarded +As a prison by the sea,-- +In the island which hereafter +Will be called the Isle of Saints, +To its glory everlasting; +Such a crowd, great lord, therein +Will give up their lives as martyrs +In religious attestation +Of the faith, faith's highest marvel. +Of an Irish cavalier, +And of his chaste spouse and partner, +A French lady, I was born, +Unto whom I owe (oh, happy +That 'twas so!), beyond my birthright +Of nobility, the vantage +Of the Christian faith, the light +Of Christ's true religion granted +In the sacred rite of baptism, +Which a mark indelibly stampeth +On the soul, heaven's gate, as it +Is the sacrament first granted +By the Church. My pious parents, +Having thus the debt exacted +From all married people paid +By my birth, retired thereafter +To two separate convents, where +In the purity and calmness +Of their chaste abodes they lived, +Till the fatal line of darkness, +Ending life, was reached, and they, +Fortified by every practice +Of the Catholic faith, in peace +Yielded up their souls in gladness, +Unto heaven their spirits giving, +Giving unto earth their ashes. +I, an orphan, then remained +Carefully and kindly guarded +By a very holy matron, +Underneath whose rule I hardly +Had completed one brief lustrum -- +Five short years had scarce departed -- +Five bright circles of the sun +Wheeling round on golden axles, +Twelve high zodiac signs illuming +And one earthly sphere, when happened +Through me an event that showed +God's omnipotence and marvels; +Since of weakest instruments +God makes use of, to enhance his +Majesty the more, to show +That for what men think the grandest +And most strange effects, to Him +Should alone the praise be granted.-- +It so happened, and Heaven knoweth +That it is not pride, but rather +Pure religious zeal, that men +Should know how the Lord hath acted, +Makes me tell it, that one day +To my doors a blind man rambled, +Gormas was his name, who said, +"God who sends me here commands thee +In His name to give me sight;" +I, obedient to the mandate, +Made at once the sign of the cross +On his sightless eyes, that started +Into life and light once more +From their state of utter darkness. +At another time when heaven, +Muffled in the thickest, blackest +Clouds, made war upon the world, +Hurling at it lightning lances +Of white snow, which fell so thickly +On a mountain, that soon after +They being melted by the sun, +So filled up our streets and alleys, +So inundated our houses, +That amid the wild waves stranded +They were ships of bricks and stones, +Barks of cement and of plaster. +Who before saw waves on mountains? +Who 'mid woods saw ships at anchor? +I the sign of the cross then made +On the waters, and in accents, +In a tone of grave emotion, +In God's name the waves commanded +To retire: they turned that moment +And left dry the lands they ravaged. +Oh, great God! who will not praise Thee? +Who will not confess Thee Master?-- +Other wonders I could tell you, +But my modesty throws shackles +On my tongue, makes mute my voice, +And my lips seals up and fastens. +I grew up, in fine, inclined +Less to arms than to the marvels +Knowledge can reveal: I gave me +Almost wholly up to master +Sacred Science, to the reading +Of the Lives of Saints, a practice +Which doth teach us faith, hope, zeal, +Charity and Christian manners. +In these studies thus immersed, +I one day approached the margin +Of the sea with some young friends, +Fellow-students and companions, +When a bark drew nigh, from which +Suddenly out-leaping landed +Armed men, fierce pirates they, +Who these seas, these islands, ravaged; +We at once were captives made, +And in order not to hazard +Losing us their prey, they sailed +Out to sea with swelling canvas. +Of this daring pirate boat +Philip de Roqui was the captain, +In whose breast, for his destruction, +Pride, the poisonous weed, was planted. +He the Irish seas and coast +Having thus for some days ravaged, +Taking property and life, +Pillaging our homes and hamlets; +But myself alone reserved +To be offered as a vassal, +As a slave to thee, O king! +In thy presence as he fancied. +Oh! how ignorant is man, +When of God's wise laws regardless, +When, without consulting Him, +He his future projects planneth! +Philip well, at sea might say so; +Since to-day, in sight of land here, +Heaven the while being all serene, +Mild the air, the water tranquil, +In an instant, in a moment, +He beheld his proud hopes blasted. +In the hollow-breasted waves +Roared the wind, the sea grew maddened, +Billows upon billows rolled +Mountain high, and wildly dashed them +Wet against the sun, as if +They its light would quench and darken. +The poop-lantern of our ship +Seemed a comet most erratic -- +Seemed a moving exhalation, +Or a star from space outstarted; +At another time it touched +The profoundest deep sea-caverns, +Or the treacherous sands whereon +Ran the stately ship and parted. +Then the fatal waves became +Monuments of alabaster, +Tombs of coral and of pearl. +I (and why this boon was granted +Unto me by Heaven I know not, +Being so useless), with expanded +Arms, struck out, but not alone +My own life to save, nay rather +In the attempt to save this brave +Young man here, that life to barter; +For I know not by what secret +Instinct towards him I'm attracted; +And I think he yet will pay me +Back this debt with interest added. +Finally, through Heaven's great pity +We at length have happily landed, +Where my misery may expect it, +Or my better fate may grant it; +Since we are your slaves and servants, +That being moved by our disasters, +That being softened by our weeping, +Our sore plight may melt your hardness, +Our affliction force your kindness, +And our very pains command you.*** + + +[footnote] * The asonante in a -- e, or their vocal equivalents, +commences here, and is continued to the commencement of the speech of +Enius, when it changes to the asonante in e -- e, which is kept up +through the remainder of the Scene, and to the end of Scene III. + +[footnote] ** "Empthor" -- see note on this name. + +[footnote] *** See note for some extracts from Montalvan's "Vida y +Purgaterio de San Patricio". + + +KING. Silence, miserable Christian, +For my very soul seems fastened +On thy words, compelling me, +How I know not, to regard thee +With strange reverence and fear, +Thinking thou must be that vassal -- +That poor slave whom in my dream +I beheld outbreathing flashes, +Saw outflashing living fire, +In whose flame, so lithe and lambent, +My Polonia and my Lesbia +Like poor moths were burned to ashes. + +PATRICK. Know, the flame that from my mouth +Issued, is the true Evangel, +Is the doctrine of the Gospel:-- +'Tis the word which I'm commanded +Unto thee to preach, O King! +To thy subjects and thy vassals, +To thy daughters, who shall be +Christians through its means. + +KING. Cease, fasten +Thy presumptuous lips, vile Christian, +For thy words insult and stab me. + +LESBIA. Stay! + +POLONIA. And wilt thou in thy pity +Try to save him from his anger? + +LESBIA. Yes. + +POLONIA. Forbear, and let him die. + +LESBIA. Thus to die by a king's hands here +Were unjust. [Aside.] (It is my pity +For these Christians prompts my answer.) + +POLONIA. If this second Joseph then, +Like the first one, would unravel, +Would interpret the king's dreams, +Do not dread the result, my father; +For if my being seen to burn +Indicates in any manner +I should ever be a Christian, +As impossible a marvel +Such would be, as if, being dead, +I could rise and live thereafter. +But in order that your mind +May be turned from such just anger, +Let us hear now who this other +Stranger is. + +LUIS. Then be attentive, +Beautiful divinity, +For my history thus commences:-- +Great Egerius, King of Ireland, +I by name am Luis Enius, +And a Christian also, this +Being the sole point of resemblance +Betwixt Patrick and myself, +Yet a difference presenting: +For although we two are Christians, +So distinct and so dissevered +Are we, that not good from evil +Is more opposite in its essence. +Yet for all that, in defence +Of the faith I believe and reverence, +I would lose a thousand lives +(Such the esteem for it I cherish). +Yes, by God! The oath alone +Shows how firmly I confess Him. +I no pious tales or wonders, +Worked in my behalf by Heaven, +Have to speak of: no; dark crimes, +Robberies, murders, sacrileges, +Treasons, treacheries, betrayals, +Must I tell instead, however +Vain it be in me to glory +In my having such effected. +I in one of Ireland's many +Isles was born; the planets seven, +I suspect, in wild abnormal +Interchange of influences, +Must have at my hapless birth-time +All their various gifts presented. +Fickleness the Moon implanted +In my nature; subtle Hermes +With and genius ill-employed; +(Better ne'er to have possessed them); +Wanton Venus gave me passions -- +All the flatteries of the senses, +And stern Mars a cruel mind +(Mars and Venus both together +What will they not give?); the Sun +Gave to me an easy temper, +Prone to spend, and when means failed me +Theft and robbery were my helpers; +Jupiter presumptuous pride, +Thoughts fantastic and unfettered, +Gave me; Saturn, rage and anger, +Valour and a will determined +On its ends; and from such causes +Followed the due consequences. +Here from Ireland being banished, +By a cause I do not mention +Through respect to him, my father +Came to Perpignan, and settled +In that Spanish town, when I +Scarce my first ten years had ended, +And when sixteen came, he died. +May God rest his soul in heaven!-- +Orphaned, I remained the prey +Of my passions and my pleasures, +O'er whose tempting plain I ran +Without rein or curb to check me. +The two poles of my existence, +On which all the rest depended +For support, were play and women. +What a base on which to rest me! +Here my tongue would not be able +To acquaint you 'in extenso' +With my actions: a brief abstract +May, however, be attempted. +I, to outrage a young maiden, +Stabbed to death a noble elder, +Her own father: for the sake +Of his wife, a most respected +Cavalier I slew, as he +Lay beside her in the helpless +State of sleep, his honour bathing +In his blood, the bed presenting +A sad theatre of crimes, +Murder and adultery blended. +Thus the father and the husband +Life for honour's sake surrendered; +For even honour has its martyrs. +May God rest their souls in heaven!-- +Dreading punishment for this, +I fled hastily, and entered +France, where my exploits, methinks, +Time will cease not to remember; +For, assisting in the wars +Which at that time were contended +Bravely betwixt France and England, +I took military service +Under Stephen, the French king, +And a fight which chance presented +Showed my courage to be such, +That the king himself, as guerdon +Of my valour, gave to me +The commission of an ensign. +How that debt I soon repaid, +I prefer not now to tell thee. +Back to Perpignan, thus honoured, +I returned, and having entered +Once a guard-house there to play, +For some trifle I lost temper, +Struck a serjeant, killed a captain, +And maimed others there assembled. +At the cries from every quarter +Speedily the watch collected, +And in flying to a church, +As they hurried to prevent me, +I a catch-pole killed. ('Twas something +One good work to have effected +'Mid so many that were bad.) +May God rest his soul in heaven!-- +Far I fled into the country, +And asylum found and shelter +In a convent of religious, +Which was founded in that desert, +Where I lived retired and hidden, +Well taken care of and attended. +For a lady there, a nun, +Was my cousin, which connection +Gave to her the special burden +Of this care. My heart already +Being a basilisk which turned +All the honey into venom, +Passing swiftly from mere liking +To desire -- that monster ever +Feeding on the impossible -- +Living fire that with intensest +Fury burns when most opposed -- +Flame the wind revives and strengthens, +False, deceitful, treacherous foe +Which doth murder its possessor -- +In a word, desire in him, +Who nor God nor law respecteth, +Of the horrible, of the shocking, +Thinks but only to attempt it.-- +Yes, I dared . . . . But here disturbed, +When, my lord, I this remember, +Mute the voice in horror fails, +Sad the accent faints and trembles, +And as 'mid the night's dark shadows, +The hair stands on end through terror; +Thus confused, so full of doubt, +Sad remembrance so o'erwhelms me, +That the thing I dared to do +I scarce dare in words to tell thee. +For, in fine, my crime is such, +So to be abhorred, detested, +So profane, so sacrilegious +(Strange upon thee so to press it), +That for having such committed +I at times feel some repentance. +Well, in fine, I dared one night, +When deep silence had erected +Sepulchres of fleeting sleep +For men's overwearied senses, +When a dark and cloudy veil +Heaven had o'er its face extended -- +Mourning which the wind assumed +For the sun whose life had ended -- +In whose obsequies the night-birds +Swan-notes sang instead of verses, +And when back from waves of sapphire, +Where their beauty was reflected, +The clear stars a second time +Trembling lights to heaven presented:-- +Well, on such a night, by climbing +O'er the garden wall, I entered +With the assistance of two friends +(For when such things are attempted +An associate never fails), +And in horror and in terror, +Seeking in the dark my death, +Reached at length the cell (I tremble +To remember it) in which +Was my cousin, whom respectful +Silence bids me not to name, +Though all self-respect has left me. +Frightened at such nameless horror, +On the hard floor she fell senseless, +When she passed into my arms, +And ere she regained her senses, +She already was outside +Her asylum, in a desert, +When if heaven possessed the power, +It had not the will to help her. +Women, when they are persuaded +That the wildest of excesses +Are the effects of love, forgive them +Easily; and, therefore, pleasure +Following tears, some consolation +In her miseries was effected; +Though, in fact, they were so great, +That united in one person +She saw violence, violation, +Incest, nay, adultery even, +Against God who was her spouse, +And a sacrilege most dreadful. +Finally we left that place, +Being carried to Valencia +By two steeds that well might claim +From the winds to be descended: +Feigning that she was my wife, +But with little peace we dwelt there; +For I quickly having squandered +Whatsoever little treasure +I brought with me, without friends, +p 260 +Without any hope of help there, +In my dire distress appealed +To the beauty still so perfect +Of my poor pretended wife: +If for aught I did I ever +Could feel shame, this act alone +Would most surely overwhelm me; +Since it is the lowest baseness +That the vilest breast descends to, +To put up to sale one's honour, +And to trade in love's caresses. +Scarce with shameless front had I +This base plan to her suggested, +When concealing her design +She gave seeming acquiescence; +But I scarce had turned my back, +Hardly had I left her presence, +When she, flying from me, found +Grace a convent's walls to enter. +There, a holy monk advising, +She a saving port and shelter +Found against the world's wild storms, +And there died, her sin, her penance, +Giving all a great example; +May God rest her soul in heaven!-- +Seeing that the narrow world +Now took note of my offences, +And that soon the very land +Might reject me, I determined +To re-seek my native country; +For at least I there expected +To be safer from my foes, +In a place so long my centre +And my home. The way I took +And to Ireland came, which welcomed +Me at first as would a mother, +But a step-mother resembled +Before long, for seeking a passage +Where a harbour lay protected +By a mole, I found that corsairs +Lay concealed within the shelter +Of a little creek which his +Out of view their well-armed vessel. +And of these, their captain, Philip, +Took me prisoner, after efforts +Made in my defence so brave, +That in deference to the mettle +I displayed, my life he spared. +What ensured you know already, +How the wind in sudden anger +Rising into raging tempest, +Now chastised us in its pride, +Now our lives more cruelly threatened, +Making in the seas and mountains +Such wild ruin and resemblance, +That to mock the mountain's pride +Waves still mightier forms presented, +Which with catapults of crystal +Made the cliffs' foundations tremble, +So that neighbouring cities fell, +And the sea, in scornful temper, +Gathering up from its abysses +The munition it collecteth, +Fired upon the land its pearls +In their shells, wherein engendered +By the swift breath of the morning +In its dew, they shine resplendent +Tears of ice and fire; in fine, +Not in pictures so imperfect +All our time to waste, the crew +Went to sup in the infernal +Halls themselves; I, too, a guest +Would have equally attended +With them, if this Patrick, here, +Whom I know not why I reverence, +Looking with respect and fear +On his beauteous countenance ever, +Had not drawn me from the sea, +Where, exhausted, sinking, helpless, +I drank death in every draught, +Agony in each salt wave's venom. +This my history is, and now +I wish neither life nor mercy, +Neither that my pains should move thee, +Nor my asking should compel thee, +Save in this, to give me death, +That thus may the life be ended +Of a man who is so bad, +That he scarcely can be better.* + + +[footnote] *See note as to Montalvan's invention of this story. + + +KING. Luis, though thou art a Christian, +Which by me is most detested, +Yet I so admire thy courage +That I wish, before all present, +Between thee and him to show +How my power can be exerted, +How it punishes as rewards, +How it elevates and depresses. +And so thus my arms I give thee, +That within them thus extended +Thou may'st reach my heart; to thee +Thus beneath my feet to tread thee; +[He throws PATRICK on the ground and places his foot upon him. +The two actions signifying +How the heavier scale descendeth. +And that, Patrick, thou may'st see +How I value or give credit +To thy threats, thy life I spare. +Vomit forth the flame incessant +Of the so-called word of God, +That by this thou may'st be certain +I do not adore his Godship, +Nor his miracles have dread of. +Live then; but in such a state +Of poor, mean, and abject service, +As befits a useless hind +In the fields; and so as shepherd +I would have thee guard my flocks, +Which are in these vales collected. +Let us see, if for the purpose +Of this mystic fire outspreading, +Being my slave, thy God will free thee +From captivity and thy fetters. +[Exit. + +LESBIA. Patrick moves my heart to pity. +[Exit. + +POLONIA. Not so mine, for none I cherish. +Had I any, none would move me +Sooner than this Luis Enius.* +[Exit. + + +[footnote] *It is difficult to account for Calderon giving the name +of "Egerio" to the King of Ireland, when he bestows the proper one -- +"Leogaire" -- on an inferior character. The name of the King of +Montalvan. "Era Rey de aquella, y de otras islas comarcanas +Leogardo, hijo de Neil." -- Cap. I., p. 19, ed. 1628. Calderon had +to invent names for the king's daughters, as he did not find them in +Montalvan. In the Book of Armagh they are called "Ethne the fair" +and "Fedelm the ruddy." -- Todd, p. 451. Miss Cusack gives the names +"Ethna" and "Fethlema." -- "Life of St. Patrick", p. 291. Of their +baptism, the distinguished poet to whom this drama is dedicated, has +thus sung:-- + +"They knelt: on their heads the wave he poured +Thrice, in the name of the Triune Lord: +And their foreheads he signed with the Sign adored. +On Fedelm the 'Red Rose,' on Ethna 'The Fair,' +God's dew shone bright in that morning air." +- AUBREY DE VERE'S "Legends of St. Patrick". + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE III. + +PATRICK and LUIS. + +PATRICK. Luis, though a low position +Mine is here, and I observe thee +Raised to fortune's highest summit, +Yet I feel more grief than envy +At thy rise. Thou art a Christian; +Show thyself one now in earnest. + +LUIS. Patrick, let me now enjoy +The first favours fate has sent me +After so much sad misfortune. + +PATRICK. One word, then (if thou wilt let me +So presume), I ask of thee. + +LUIS. What is that? + +PATRICK. Upon this earth here, +Once again, alive or dead, +That we two shall meet together. + +LUIS. Such a word dost ask me? + +PATRICK. Yes. + +LUIS. Then I give it. + +PATRICK. I accept it. +[Exeunt. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE IV. + +A HAMLET NEAR THE COURT OF EGERIUS. + +PHILIP and LUCY. + +LUCY. Pardon, if I have not known +How to serve you as I ought. + +PHILIP. For much more than you have thought +Must you my forgiveness own. +For when I your kind face view, +Pain and pleasure being at war, +I have much to thank you for, +And have much to pardon too. +Thanks, with which my heart is rife, +Are for life restored and breath; +Pardon, for you give me death, +As before you gave me life. + +LUCY. For such flattering declarations +Rude and ignorant am I, +So my arms will give reply; +Which gets rid of explanations. +Let their silent interfacing +Figure what my words should be. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE V. + +PAUL. -- THE SAME. + +PAUL [aside]. Eh, sirs! what is this I see? +Some one here my wife's embracing. +What's to do? I burn, I burst. +Kill her? Yes. 'Twas fortune sent me. +One thing only doth prevent me, +Which is, she might kill me first. + +PHILIP. For your hospitable care, +Beauteous mountaineer, I would +That this ring's bright diamond could +Far outshine a star of air. + +LUCY. Think me not a woman who +Lives intent her gain to make; +But I take it for your sake. + +PAUL. [aside'. What I wonder should I do? +But if I'm her husband, then, +As I saw him give the ring, +Silence is the proper thing. + +LUCY. In these arms I once again +Give to you my soul, for I +Have no other ring or chain. + +PHILIP. Where I ever could remain:-- +For such sweet captivity +Lures me from the miseries +Of remembering my sad fate, +Caused, as you have seen, so late, +By these crystalline blue seas. + +PAUL [aside[. What! a new embrace! Halloo! +Don't you see, sir, Od's my life, +That this woman is my wife? + +PHILIP. Here's your husband full in view; +He has seen us. I must straight +Leave you and return -- [Aside.} Ah, me! +Couldst thou this, Polonia, see, +Thou mightst mourn, perhaps, the state +Unto which I see me doomed. +And. O heaven-aspiring sea, +Say in what vast depths can be +All the lives thou hast entombed? +[Exit. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE VI. + +PAUL and LUCY; afterwards PHILIP. + +PAUL [aside]. As he's gone, I'll louder speak.-- +This time, Lucy mine, I've caught you, +So a present I have brought you: +See this window-bar, 'twill wreak +My revenge. + +LUCY. Oh, how malicious! +Bless me, grumbler, what grimaces! + +PAUL. Then to witness two embraces +Does not look at all suspicious?-- +Was it malice, then, in me, +Not plain seeing? + +LUCY. Malice merely: +For a husband, how so nearly +He may pry, should never see +More than half his wife doth do. + +PAUL. Well, with that I'm quite content, +To that condition I assent, +And since twice embraced by you +Has that rascal soldier been, +Whom the sea spewed out in spite, +I will juggle with my sight, +And pretend but once to have seen; +And as I for two embraces +Meant to give a hundred blows, +I but fifty now propose +For one half of my disgraces. +I have totted up the score; +You yourself the sentence gave; +Yes, by God I swear, you'll have +Fifty strokes and not one more. + +LUCY. I've admitted far too much. +For a husband it would be +Quite preposterous; he should see +But the quarter. + +PAUL. Even as such +I acknowledge the appeal. +Patience, and your back prepare, +For the now admitted share, +Five-and-twenty blows you'll feel. + +LUCY. No, not so; you're still astray. + +PAUL. Then say what? + +LUCY. Between us two, +You're to trust not what you view, +But what I am pleased to say. + +PAUL. Better far, I think, 'twould be, +Daughter of the devil, that you +Held the stick and used it too, +With it well belabouring me; +Is't agreed what I propose? +Yes; then let us both change places. +Give to him the two embraces, +And to me the hundred blows. + +[PHILIP returns. + +PHILIP [aside]. Has the peasant gone, I wonder? + +PAUL. At the nick of time you're here, +So, Sir Soldier, lend an ear. +Obligation I am under +For the favours you have meant +To bestow so liberally +On my cot, my wife, and me; +And although I'm well content +With you, yet as you're progressing +Day by day and getting stronger, +It is best you stay no longer. +Take the road, then, with God's blessing, +Leave my house, for it would be +Sad in it to raise my hand, +Leaving you dead flesh on land +Who wert living fish at sea. + +PHILIP. The suspicion that you show +Is quite groundless, do not doubt it. + +PAUL. Zounds! with reason or without it, +Am I married, sir, or no? + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE VII. + +LEOGAIRE, an Old Peasant, and PATRICK. + +LEOGAIRE. So 'tis ordered, and that he +Serving here from day to day, +In the open field should stay. + +OLD MAN. Yes; I say it so shall be. + +LEOGAIRE. But who's this? O happiness! +Since 'tis Philip's form I greet. +Mighty lord, I kiss thy feet. + +PAUL. Mighty lord does he call him? + +LUCY. Yes. +Now lay on the blows you owe. +Now, friend Paul, the moment charms. + +PHILIP. Give me, good Leogaire, your arms. + +LEOGAIRE. Honour in them you bestow. +Is it possible, once more +That alive I see thee? + +PHILIP. Here, +Trophy of a fate severe, +The sea flung me on this shore, +Where, their willing aid secured, +I have lived these peasants' guest, +Till I could repair with rest +All the sufferings I endured. +And, besides, I thought with dread +On the angry disposition +Of the king: for his ambition +When has it or bowed the head, +Or with patience heard related +The sad tragedies of fate? +Hopeless and disconsolate +In this solitude I've waited, +Till some happy chance might rise +When no longer I should grieve, +And the king would give me leave +To appear before his eyes. + +LEOGAIRE. That already has been given thee; +For so sad was he, believing +Thou wert dead, so deep his grieving, +All the past will be forgiven thee +Since thou livest. Come with me, +Fortune will once more embrace thee,-- +In his favour to replace thee +Let my happy privilege be. + +PAUL. For that late unseemly brawl +See me humbly bending low; +You, my lord Prince Philip, know +That I am one Juan Paul. +My suspicion and abuse +Pray forgive, your majesty, +Think that what I said to thee +Was but cackled by a goose. +At your service, night and day, +Are whatever goods I've got -- +Lucy here, myself and cot; +And God bless us all, I pray. + +PHILIP. For your hospitality +I am grateful, and I trust +To repay it. + +PAUL. If you must, +Let the first instalment be +Just to take my wife away. +Thurs you will reward us two; +She'll be glad to go with you, +I, without her, glad to stay. + +[Exeunt PHILIP and LEOGAIRE. + +LUCY [aside]. Was there ever love so vain +As is mine, a brief caress +Cradled in forgetfulness? + +OLD MAN. Juan Paul, as we remain +Here alone, 'twere well to greet +As a friend this labourer, +Newly sent us. + +PATRICK. Nay, good sir, +I'm a slave, and I entreat +That as such you understand me; +I, the lowest of the low, +Hither come to serve, and so +I implore that you command me +As a slave, since I am one. + +OLD MAN. Oh, what modesty! + +PAUL. What humility! + +LUCY. What good looks, too, and gentility! +I, in truth, can't help being drawn +By his face. + +PAUL. Came ever here +(This is quite between us two) +Any wandering stranger who +Did not draw you so, my dear? +Eh, my Lucy? + +LUCY. Boorish, base, +Is your vile insinuation +'Gains my innocent inclination +For the whole of the human race! +[Exit. + +OLD MAN. To your sharpness and good will, +Paul, I trust a thing that may +Cost my life. + +PAUL. Then don't delay. +Tell it, since you know my skill. + +OLD MAN. This new slave that here you see, +I suspect is not secure, +And I hasten to procure +Means by which he more may be. +For the present I confide him +To your care, by day or night +Let him not escape your sight, +Ever watchful keep beside him. +[Exit. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE VIII. + +PATRICK and PAUL. + +PAUL [aside]. I'm to keep what you discarded! +Good in faith!-- [To PATRICK] Behold in me +Your strict guard; in you I see +The sole thing I ever guarded +In my life; with such a care +I can neither sleep nor eat. +If you wish to use your feet +You can go, your road lies there. +Nay, in flying quickly hence +You to me a good will do, +Since my care will fly with you. +Go in peace. + +PATRICK. With confidence +You may trust me, for I'm not, +Though a slave, a fugitive. +Lord! how gladly do I live +In this solitary spot, +Where my soul in raptured prayer +May adore Thee, or in trance +See the living countenance +Of Thy prodigies so rare! +Human wisdom, earlthly lore, +Solitude reveals and reaches; +What diviner wisdom teaches +In it, too, I would explore. + +PAUL. Tell me, talking thus apart, +Who it is on whom you call? + +PATRICK. Great primeval cause of all, +Thou, O Lord, in all things art! +These blue heavens, these crystal skies +Formed of dazzling depths of light, +In which sun, moon, stars unite, +Are they not but draperies +Hung before Thy heavenly land?-- +The discordant elements, +Water, fire, earth, air immense, +Prove they not Thy master hand? +Or in dark or brightsome hours, +Praise they not Thy power and might? +O'er the earth dost Thou not write +In the characters of flowers +Thy great goodness? And the air, +In reverberating thunder, +Does it not in fear and wonder +Say, O Lord, that Thou art there? +Are not, too, Thy praises sung +By the fire and water -- each +Dowered for this divinest speech, +With tongue the wave, the flame with tongue? +Here, then, in this lonely place +I, O Lord, may better be, +Since in all things I find Thee. +Thou hast given to me the grace +Of Obedience, Faith, and Fear; +As a slave, then, let me stay, +Or remove me where I may +Serve Thee truly, if not here.* + +[An Angel descends, holding in one hand a shield in which is a +mirror, and in the other hand a letter. + + +[footnote] *For the earlier version of this prayer, see Note. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE IX. + +An Angel. -- THE SAME. + +ANGEL. Patrick! + +PATRICK. Ah! who calls me? + +PAUL. Why, +No one calls. [Aside.] The man is daft, +Poetry should be his craft. + +ANGEL. Patrick! + +PATRICK. Ah! who calls me? + +ANGEL. I. + +PAUL [aside]. Who he speaks to, I can't see. +Well, to stop his speech were hard, +I'm not here his mouth to guard. +[Exit. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE X. + +The Angel and PATRICK. + +PATRICK. Ah! it cannot be to me +Comes such glory! For, behold! +Pearl and rosy dawn in one, +Shines a cloud, from which its sun +Breaks in crimson and in gold! +Living stars its robe adorning, +Rose and jasmine sweetly blended, +Dazzling comes that vision splendid, +Scattering purple pomps of morning. + +ANGEL. PATRICK! + +PATRICK. Sunlight strikes me blind! +Heavenly Lord, who canst thou be? + +ANGEL. I am Victor, whom to thee +God thy angel-guard assigned: +With this scroll, to give it thee +[Gives him the letter. +I am sent. + +PATRICK. Sweet messenger, +Paranymph of all things fair, +Who amidst the hierarchy +Of the highest hosts of heaven +Singest in melodious tone -- +"Glory unto Thee alone, +Holy, Holy Lord, be given!" + +ANGEL. Read the letter. + +PATRICK. With amaze, +I see here "To Patrick" Oh, +Can a slave be honoured so? + +ANGEL. Open it. + +PATRICK. It also says -- +"Patrick! Patrick! hither come, +Free us from our slavery!"-- +More it means than I can see, +Since I do not know by whom +I am called. Oh, faithful guide, +Speedily dispel my error! + +ANGEL. Look into this shining mirror. + +PATRICK. Heavens! + +ANGEL. What seest thou inside? + +PATRICK. Numerous people there seem thronging, +Old men, children, women, who +Seem to call me. + +ANGEL. Nor do you +Stay, but satisfy their longing. +You behold the Irish nation, +Who expect to hear God's truth +From your lips. Oh, chosen youth, +Leave your slavery. The vocation +God has given thee is to sow +Faith o'er all the Irish soil. +There as Legate thou shalt toil, +Ireland's great Apostle. Go +First to France, to German's home, +The good bishop: there thou'lt make +Thy profession: there thou'lt take +The monk's habit, and to Rome +Pass, where letters thou'lt procure +For that mighty work of thine, +In the bulls of Celestine: +Thou wilt visit, then, in Tours +Martin, the great bishop there. +Now upborne upon the wind +Come with me, for thou wilt find +God has given with prescient care +His commands to all, that so +Fitly thy great work be done; +But 'tis time we should be gone: +Let us on our journey go. +[They disappear. + + + + * * * * * + + +ACT THE SECOND. + +HALL OF A TOWER IN THE PALACE OF EGERIUS. + +SCENE I. + +LUIS and POLONIA + +LUIS. Yes, Polonia, yes, for he +Who betrays inconstancy +Has no reason for complaining +That another love is gaining +On his own; that fault will be +Ever punished so. For who +Proudly soars that doth not fall? +Therefore 'tis that I forestall +Philip's love howe'er so true. +He is nobler to the view, +As one nobly born may be; +But in that nobility, +Which one's self can win and wear, +I with justice may declare +I am nobler far than he; +I more honour have obtained +Than on Philip's cradle rained: +Let the fact excuse the boast, +For this land from coast to coast +Rings with victories I have gained. +Three years is it since I came +To these isles (it seems a day); +Three swift years have rolled away +Since I made it my chief aim +Thee to serve -- my highest fame. +Trophies numerous as the sand, +Mars might envy, has my hand +Won for thy great sire and thee -- +Being the wonder of the sea, +And th' amazement of the land. + +POLONIA. Luis, yes, thy gallant bearing, +Or inherited or acquired, +Has within my breast inspired +A strange fear, a certain daring,-- +Ah, I know not if, declaring +This, 'tis love, for blushes rise +At perceiving with surprise +That at last hath come the hour, +When my heart must own the power +Of a deity I despise. +This alone I'll say, that here +Long thy hope had been fruition, +But that I the disposition +Of the king, my father, fear, +But still hope and persevere. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE II. + +PHILIP. -- THE SAME. + +PHILIP [aside]. If to find my death I come, +Why precipitate my doom? +But so patient who could be +As to not desire to see +What impends, how dark its gloom? + +LUIS. Then, what pledge may I demand +Of your faith? + +POLONIA. This hand. + +PHILIP. Not so, +How to hinder it I shall know; +More of this I must withstand. + +POLONIA. Woe is me! + +PHILIP. Wilt give thy hand +to this outcast of the wave? +And, oh thou, to whom pride gave +The presumption to aspire +To a sun's celestial fire, +Knowing that thou wert my slave, +Why thus dare to come between +Me and mine? + +LUIS. Because I dare +Be what now I am, nor care +More to be what I have been. +It is true that I was seen +Once your slave: for who, indeed, +Can the fickle wheel control? +But in nobleness of soul +The best blood of all your breed +I can equal, nay, exceed. + +PHILIP. Exceed ME? Vile homicide! +Wretch . . . . + +LUIS. In having thus replied +You have made a slight mistake. + +PHILIP. No. + +LUIS. If such you did not make, +You've done worse. + +PHILIP. Say, what? + +LUIS. You've lied! + +PHILIP. Villain! traitor +[Strikes him in the face. + +POLONIA. Oh, ye skies! + +LUIS. For so many injuries +Why not instant vengeance take, +When volcanic fires awake +In my breast, and hell-flames rise? +[They draw their swords. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE III. + +EGERIUS and soldiers. -- THE SAME. + +KING. What is this? + +LUIS. A lasting woe, +A misfortune, an abuse, +A sharp pain, a fiend let loose +From the infernal pit below. +Let no one presume to go +'Twixt me and revenge. Reflect, +Fury breathes immortal breath, +Vengeance has no fear of death, +Nor for any man respect. +I my honour must protect. + +KING. Seize him. + +LUIS. Let the man who sighs +For his death obey! You'll see +How the boldest fares, for he, +Even before your very eyes, +Shall be slain. + +KING. That this should rise!-- +Follow him. + +LUIS. In desperate mood, +Plunging headlong in red blood, +Like a sea both wide and deep, +Thus courageously I leap, +Seeking Philip through the flood. + +[All enter fighting. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE IV. + +KING. I but wanted this alone +After what I've heard, that he +Who escaped from slavery, +And to distant Rome had flown, +Now with purpose too well known, +Has to Ireland come again, +Where proclaiming the new reign +Of the faith, he has enticed +Many to believe in Christ, +Rending all the world in twain. +A magician he must be, +Since condemned, so rumour saith, +By some other kings to death, +He though tied upon the tree +In an instant set him free, +With such prodigies of wonder +That the earth (within whose womb +The dead lie as in a tomb) +Trembled, the air groaned in thunder, +Dark eclipse the sun lay under, +Deigning not a single glance +Of his radiant countenance +To the moon: from which I see +That this Patrick, for 'tis he, +Lords it over fate and chance; +Awe-struck by the prodigy, +Fearing they may punished be, +Crowds attend him on his way. +And 'tis said that he to-day +Comes to try his spells on me. +Let him come, and once for all +Wave in vain his conjuring rod! +We shall see who is this God, +Whom their God the Christians call. +By my hand must Patrick fall, +Were it but to see if he +Can escape his destiny, +Or my will subvert and master, +He this Bishop, he this Pastor, +He Pope's Legate, though he be. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE V. + +The Captain, Soldiers, LUIS a prisoner, The King. + +CAPTAIN. Luis, sire, without delay +We secured; but not before +He killed three, and wounded more, +Of our company. + +KING. Christian, say, +Why do you no fear display, +Seeing now in angry mood +My hand raised to shed your blood? +But in vain do I deplore, +Since he this deserves and more +Who has done a Christian good. +Gifts, not chastisement, should be +Thine to-day, for it is plain +It is I should feel the pain +For conferring good on thee. +Take him hence, and presently +Let him die; and be it known +Why from him has mercy flown. +'Tis not for his crimes or guilt +That this Christian's blood is spilt, +'Tis for Christ's belief alone. +[Exeunt. + + + + * * * * * + + + * SCENE VI. + +LUIS. + +LUIS. If for this I die, to me +Thou the happiest death allottest, +Since he for his God will die, +He who dies to do Him honour. +And a man whose life is here +But a round of cares and crosses, +Should be grateful unto death +As the end of all his sorrows; +Since it comes the tangled thread +Of a wretched life to shorten, +Which to-day the evil Phoenix +Of its works that now prove mortal +Would revive amid the ashes +Of my wrong and my dishonour. +Then my life, my breath were poison, +Venom would my breast but foster, +Until I had shed in Ireland +Blood in such a copious torrent, +That though base it might wash out +The remembrance of my wronger. +Ah, my honour, low thou liest, +By a ruthless foot down trodden!-- +I will die with thee, united +We two will together conquer +These barbarians. Then since little, +But a span at best, belongeth +To my life, a noble vengeance +Let this dagger take upon me!-- +But, good God! what evil impulse +With demoniac instinct prompteth +Thus my hand? I am a Christian, +I've a soul, and share the godly +Light of faith: then were it right, +'Mid a crowd of Gentile mockers, +Thus the Christian faith to tarnish +By an action so improper? +What example would I give them +By a death so sad and shocking, +Save that I thus gave the lie +To the works that Patrick worketh. +Since they'd say, who worship only +Their own vices most immodest, +Who deny unto the soul +Its eternal joy or torment, +"Of what use is Patrick's preaching +That man's soul must be immortal, +If the Christian, Luis Enius, +Kills himself? He can't acknowledge +Its eternal life who'd lose it."-- +Thus with actions so discordant, +He the light and I the shadow, +We would neutralize each other. +'Tis enough to be so wicked +As even now to feel no sorrow, +No repentance for past sins, +Rather a desire for others. +Yes, by God! for if escape +Fortune now my life would offer, +Europe, Africa, and Asia +I would fill with fear and horror; +First exacting here the debt +Of a vengeance so enormous, +That these islands of Egerius +Would not hold a single mortal +Who should not appease the thirst, +The insatiable longing +That I have for blood. The lightning, +When it bursts its prison portals, +Warns us in a voice of thunder, +And then 'twixt dark smoke and forked +Fires that take the shape of serpents, +Fills the trembling air with horror. +I, too, gave that thunder voice, +So that all men heard the promise, +But the lightning bolt was wanting. +Yes, ah me! it proved abortive, +And before it touched the earth +Was by dallying winds made sport of. +No, it is not death that grieves me, +Even a death of such dishonour, +'Tis because at last are ended, +In my youth's fresh opening blossom, +My offences. Life I wish for +To begin from this day forward +Greater and more dread excesses. +Heavens! 'tis for no other object. + + + + * * * * + + +SCENE VII. + +POLONIA. -- LUIS. + +POLONIA [aside] (Now with mind made up I come.) +Luis, an occasion offers +Ever as the test and touchstone +Of true love. By certain knowledge +Have I learned the imminent danger +Of thy life. The wrath grows hotter +Of my father, and his fury +To evade is most important. +All the guards that here are with thee +Has my liberal hand suborned, +So that at the clink of gold +Have their ears grown deaf and torpid. +Fly! and that thou mayest see +How a woman's heart can prompt her, +How her honour she can trample, +How her self-respect leave prostrate, +With thee I will go, since now +It is needful that henceforward +I in life and death am thine, +For without thee life were worthless, +Thou who in my heart dost live. +I bring with me gems and money +Quite enough to the most distant +Parts of India to transport us, +Where the sun with beams and shadows +Scatters frost, or burning scorches. +At the door two steeds are standing, +I should rather call these horses +Two swift lynxes, air-born creatures, +Thoughts by liveliest minds begotten; +They so rapid are, that though +We as fugitives fly on them, +An assurance of our safety +We shall feel. At once resolve then. +Why thus ponder? what delays thee? +Time is pressing, therefore shorten +All discourse; and that mischance, +Which disturbs love's plans so often, +May not offer an obstruction +To so well-prepared a project, +First before thee I will go. +Issue, while in specious converse +I divert thy guards, and give +To thy coming forth a cover. +Even the sun our project favours, +Which amid the west waves yonder, +Sinking, dips his golden curls +To refresh his glowing forehead. +[Exit. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE VIII. + +LUIS. + +LUIS. A most opportune occasion +To my hands has fortune offered; +Since Heaven knows that all the show +Of apparent love and fondness +Which I proffered to Polonia +Was assumed, it being my object +She should go with me, where I, +Seizing on the gold and costly +Gems she carries, so might issue +From this Babylonian bondage. +For although in my person +Was esteemed and duly honoured, +Still 'twas slavery after all, +And my free wild life was longing +For that liberty, heaven's best gift, +Which I had enjoyed so often. +But a great embarrassment +And a hindrance were a woman +For the end I have in view, +Since in me is love a folly +That ne'er passes appetite, +Which being satisfied, no longer +Care I for a woman's presence, +How so fair or so accomplished. +And since thus my disposition +Is so free, of what importance +Is a murder more or less? +At my hands must die Polonia +For her loving at a time +When there's no one loved or honoured. +Had she loved as others love, +Then she would have lived as others. +[Exit. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE IX. + +The Captain; then The King, PHILIP, and LEOGAIRE. + +CAPTAIN. The sad sentence of his death +Have I come, by the king's orders, +Here to read to Luis Enius.-- +But what's this? The door lies open, +And the tower deserted. Ha! +Soldiers! No one answers. Ho, there! +Guards, come hither, treason! treason! + +[Enter The King, PHILIP, and LEOGAIRE. + +KING. Why these outcries? this commotion? +What is this? + +CAPTAIN. That Luis Enius +Has escaped, and from the fortress +All the guards have fled. + +LEOGAIRE. My lord, +I saw entering here Polonia. + +PHILIP. Heavens! beyond all doubt 'twas she +Who released him. That her lover +He dared call him, you well know. +Jealousy and rage provoke me +To pursue them. A new Troy +Will to-day be Ireland's story. +[Exit. + +KING. Give me, too, a horse; in person +I these fugitives will follow. +Ah, what Christians are these two +Who with actions so discordant, +One deprives me of my rest, +And the other robs my honour? +But the twain shall feel the weight +Of my vengeful hands fall on them; +For not safe from me would be +Even their sovereign Roman Pontiff. +[Exeunt. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE X. + +A WOOD, AT WHOSE EXTREMITY IS PAUL'S CABIN. + +POLONIA flying wounded, and LUIS with a naked dagger in his hand. + +POLONIA. Oh, hold thy bloody hand! +Though love be dead, let Christian faith command. +My honour take; but, oh, my poor life spare, +That suppliant at thy feet pours out its humble prayer. + +LUIS. Hapless Polonia, since creation's hour +Beauty has ever one unvarying dower, +It brings misfortune with it, it is this +Makes beauty rarely live long time with bliss. +I, who less pity feel +Than any headsman who e'er held death's steel, +May by thy death procure +My life, since with it I will go secure. +If thee I bring where fortune's hand may guide me +I bring the witness of my woes beside me, +By whom they may pursue me, +Track me, discover me, in fact, undo me +If here I leave thee living, +I leave thee angry, vengeful, unforgiving; +Leave thee, in fact, to be +One enemy more (and what an enemy!); +Thus equally I grieve thee, +Thus evil do whether I take or leave thee; +And so 'tis better thus, +That I a wretch, cruel and infamous, +False, impious, fierce, abandoned, wicked, banned +By God and man, should slay thee by my hand, +Since buried here, +Within the rustic entrails dark and drear +Of this rude realm of stone, +My worst misfortune shall remain unknown. +My fury, too, shall gain +A novel kind of vengeance when thou'rt slain, +Remaining satisfied +That Philip, too, by the same stroke has died, +If in thy heart he lived; and then mine ire +Will need no victim more except thy sire. +Through thee first came +My first disgrace, the cause of all my shame, +And so the first of all +On thee my vengeful strokes shall furious fall. + +POLONIA. Ah me! my fate pursuing, +I have but only worked my own undoing, +Like to the worm that by its subtle art +Spins its own grave. Hast thou a human heart? + +LUIS. I am a demon. So to prove it, die. +Thus -- + +POLONIA. God of Patrick, listen to my cry! + +[He stabs her several times, and she falls within. + +LUIS. She fell on flowers, there sowing +Both lives and horrors in her blood outflowing. +Thus now with greater ease +I can escape, and carry o'er the seas, +In many a gem and chain, +Treasure enough to make me rich in Spain, +Until so changed by time, +Disguised by wandering in a foreign clime, +I may return to reap +My vengeance; for a wrong doth never sleep. +But whither do I stray, +Treading the shades of death in this dark way? +My path is lost: I go +Whither I do not know; +Perchance escaping from my prison bands +To fall again into my tyrant's hands. +If the dark night doth not my sight deceive, +Yonder a rustic cabin I perceive. +Yes, I am right. I'll knock; I can't much err, +They'll know the way. +[He knocks. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE XI. + +PAUL and LUCY. -- LUIS. + +LUCY [within]. Who's there? + +LUIS. A traveller, +Benighted, his way lost, confused, distressed, +Good worthy husbandman, disturbs thy rest. + +LUCY [within]. Ho, Juan! how you snore! +Awake! there's some one knocking at the door. + +PAUL [within]. Why, I am well enough here in my bed. +He knocks for you, so answer him instead. + +LUCY [within]. Who's there? + +LUIS. A traveller, I say. + +PAUL [within]. A traveller? + +LUIS. Yes. + +PAUL [within]. Then travel on, I pray. +This cabin is no inn, sir, not a bit. + +LUIS. I'm getting weary of this fellow's wit. +I'll try what kicking in the door will do. +[Drives in the door. +Ay, there it goes. + +LUCY [within]. Why, Juan Paul, halloo! +Awake, I say, for if I don't mistake, +The door's knocked in. + +PAUL [within]. Well, one eye is awake, +But underneath its lid the other's laid.-- +Come with me, Lucy, for I'm sore afraid. + +[Enter PAUL and LUCY. +Who's there? + +LUIS. Be silent, peasants, and attend +If you would not that now your lives should end. +Lost in this woodland waste +I sought your door; and so, my friend, make haste +To tell me the best way +From this to the port, where I by break of day +May from the coast get clear. + +PAUL. Go right ahead: first take the pathway here, +They left, then right again, +Rise where there's hill, descend where there's a plain, +And going thus, in short, +The port you'll reach when you have reached the port. + +LUIS. 'Tis better that you come +Along with me, or by the heavens o'erhead, +Your blood shall stain the ground on which you tread. + +LUCY. Were it not better, cavalier, +To pass the night here till the dawn appear? + +PAUL. How very kind you are when least expected! +Are you already to this knight infected? + +LUIS. Choose now, at once, I say, +To die or guide me. + +PAUL. Don't be vexed, I pray; +If I without more haggling or vain clack +Select to go, and carry you on my back, +If so you chose, 'tis not that death I fear, +But just to disappoint my Lucy here. + +LUIS [aside]. That he may not betray +Whither I go, to those who track my way, +Him from some cliff I'll throw +Headlong amid the icy waves below.-- +[To LUCY. +You with this consolation here remain +Your husband will be with you soon again. +[Exeunt the two at one side, and she at the other. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE XII. + +The King EGERIUS, LESBIA, LEOGAIRE, The Captain; +afterwards PHILIP. + +LESBIA. Not a trace of them is found; +All the mountain, hill and valley, +Leaf by leaf has been explored, +Bough by bough has been examined, +Rock by rock has been searched through, +Still no clue wherewith to track them +Can we light on. + +KING. Without doubt, +To preserve them from my anger, +Has the earth engulphed the two; +For not heaven itself could guard them +From my wrath if still they lived. + +LESBIA. See the sun his disentangled +Golden tresses far extends +Over mountains, groves and gardens, +Showing that the day hath come. + +[Enter PHILIP. +PHILIP. Deign, your majesty, to hearken +To a tragedy more dreadful, +To a crime more unexampled +Than has time or fortune ever +Yet recorded in earth's annals. +Seeking traces of Polonia +Through these savage woods distracted +Roamed I restless all the night-time, +Till at length and amid the darkness +Half awakened rose the dawn; +Not in veils of gold and amber +Was she dressed, a robe of mourning +Formed of clouds composed her mantle, +And with discontented light +Hidden were the stars and planets, +Though for this one time alone +They were happy in their absence. +Searching there in every part, +We approached where blood was spattered +On the tender dewy flower, +And upon the ground some fragments of a woman's dress were strewn. +By these signs at once attracted, +We went on, 'till at the foot +Of a great rock overhanging, +In a fragrant tomb of roses +Lay Polonia, dead and stabbed there. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE XIII. + +POLONIA dead; and afterwards PATRICK. -- THE SAME. + +PHILIP. Turn your eyes, and here you see +The young tree of beauty blasted, +Pale and sad the opening flower, +The bright flame abruptly darkened; +See here loveliness laid prostrate, +See warm life here turned to marble, +See, alas! Polonia dead. + +KING. Philip, cease! proceed no farther! +For I have not resignation +To bear up with any calmness +'Gainst so many forms of wrong, +'Gainst so many shapes of sadness, +'Gainst such manifold misfortunes. +Ah, my daughter! Ah, thou hapless +Treasure fatally found for me! + +LESBIA. Grief my feeling so o'ermasters +That I have not breath to mourn. +Ah! of all thy woes the partner +Let thy wretched sister be! + +KING. What rude hand in ruffian anger +Raised its bloody steel against +Beauty so divinely fashioned? +Sorrow, sorrow ends my life. + +PATRICK [within]. Woe to thee, sin-stained Irlanda! +Woe to thee, unhappy people! +If with tears thou dost not water +The hard earth, and night and day +Weeping in thy bitter anguish, +Ope the golden gates of heaven +Which thy disobedience fastened. +Woe to thee, unhappy people! +Woe to thee, sin-stained Irlanda! + +KING. Heavens! what mournful tones are these? +What are these sad solemn accents +That transpierce my very heart, +That cut through me like a dagger? +Learn who thus disturbs the flowing +Of my grief's most tender channels. +Who but I should so lament? +Who but I should wail thus sadly? + +LEOGAIRE. This, my lord, is Patrick, who +Having as you know, departed +From this country went to Rome, +Where the Pontiff, the great father, +Made him bishop, and a post +Of pre-eminence imparted +To him here; through all the islands +He proceedeth in this manner. + +[PATRICK enters. + +PATRICK. Woe to thee, unhappy people! +Woe to thee, sin-stained Irlanda! + +KING. Patrick, thou who thus my grief +Interrupted, and my sadness +Doubled with thy golden words, +Hiding false and poisonous matter, +Why thus persecute me? Wherefore +Thus disturb the hills and valleys +Of my kingdom with deceptions +And new-fangled laws and maxims? +Here we know but this alone, +We are born and die. Our fathers +Left us this, the simple doctrine +Taught by nature, and no farther +Have we sought to learn. What God +Can be this, of whom such marvels +You relate, who life eternal +Gives when temporal life departeth? +Can the soul, when it is severed +From the body, be so active +As to have another life, +Or of bale or bliss, hereafter? + +PATRICK. Being loosened from the body, +And the human portion having +Given to nature, it being only +But a little dust and ashes, +Then the spirit upward rises, +To the higher sphere attracted, +Where its labours find their centre, +If it dies in grace, which baptism +First confers upon the soul, +And then penance ever after. + +KING. Then this beauteous one, that here +Lies in her own blood bedabbled, +There, is living at this moment? + +PATRICK. Yes. + +KING. A sign, a proof, then, grant me +Of this truth. + +PATRICK [aside]. Almighty Lord! +For Thy glory deign to hearken! +It behoveth Thee to show +Here Thy power by an example. + +KING. What! you do not answer? + +PATRICK. Heaven +Wishes for itself to answer.-- +In the name of God, O corse, +[He extends his hands over the dead body of POLONIA. +Lying stiff here, I command thee +To arise and live, resuming +Thine own soul, and thus make patent +This great truth, before us preaching +The true doctrine and evangel. + +POLONIA [arising]. Woe is me! Oh, save me, heaven! +Ah, what secrets are imparted +To the soul! O Lord! O Lord! +Stay the red hand of Thy anger, +Of Thy justice. Do not threaten, +'Gainst a woman weak and abject, +The dread thunders of Thy rigour, +Of Thy power the lightning's flashes. +Where, oh, where shall I conceal me +From Thy countenance, if haply +Thou art wroth? Ye rocks, he mountains, +Fall upon and overcast me. +Hating mine own self, to-day +Would that to my prayer 'twas granted +In the centre of the earth +From Thy sight to hide and mask me! +Ah, but why? if wheresoever +My unhappy fate might cast me +There I brought with me my sin? +See ye, see ye not this Atlas +Back recede, and this huge mountain +Tremble to its base? The axes +Of the firmament are loosened, +And its perfect fabric hangeth +Threatening ruin o'er my head, +With terrific pride and grandeur. +Darker grows the air around me, +Chained, my feet proceed no farther, +Even the seas retire before me. +What, here fly me not nor startle, +Are the wild beasts, which to rend me +Bit by bit come on to attack me. +Mercy, mighty Lord, oh, mercy! +Pardon, gracious Lord, oh, pardon! +Holy baptism I implore, +That in grace I may depart hence. +Mortals, hear, oh, mortals hear, +Christ is living, Christ is master, +Christ is god, the one true God! +Penance, penance, penance practice! +[Exit. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE XIV. + +THE SAME, with the exception of POLONIA. + +PHILIP. How prodigious! + +CAPTAIN. How stupendous! + +LESBIA. What a miracle! + +LEOGAIRE. What a marvel! + +KING. What enchantment! what bewitchment! +Who can bear this? who can grant this? + +ALL. Christ is God, the one true God. + +KING. What a bold deceit is practised +Here, blind people, to deceive you, +In the making of these marvels, +Which you have not sense to see +Are in outward show but acted +And within are fraud! However, +That the truth be now established, +I will own myself convinced, +If in argument shall Patrick +Prove his case: and so attend +As the grave dispute advances. +If the soul was made immortal +It could never be inactive +Even for a single moment. + +PATRICK. Yes; and every dream that passes +Proves this truth; because the dreams +That engender numerous phantoms +Are discourses of the soul +That ne'er sleeps, and as these shadows +Simulate the imperfect actions +Of the senses, a strange language +And imperfect is produced; +And 'tis thus that in their trances +Men dream things that are at once +Inconsistent and fantastic. + +KING. Well, then, this being so, I ask +Was Polonia when this happened +Dead or not? For if but only +In a swoon, what mighty marvel, +Then, was done? But this I pass. +If she really had departed, +Then to one of the two places, +Heaven or hell, so named, O Patrick, +By yourself, it must have gone. +If it was in heaven, 'twas hardly +Merciful in God to send it +Back into this world, to hazard +A new chance of condemnation, +When 'twas once in grace and happy. +This is surely true. If, likewise, +It had been in hell, 'tis adverse +To strict justice, since it were not +Just that that which by its badness +Once had earned such punishment, +Should again be given the chances +Of regaining grace. It must, +I presume, be taken as granted +That God's justice and His mercy +Cannot possibly be parted. +Where, I ask then, was her soul? + +PATRICK. Hear, Egerius, the answer. +I concede that for the soul, +Sanctified by holy baptism, +Heaven or hell must be its goal, +Out of which, by God's commandment, +Speaking of His usual power, +It can never more be absent. +But if of His absolute power +There is question, God could drag it +Even from hell itself; but this +Is not what we have to argue. +That the soul doth go to either +Of those places, must be granted +When 'tis severed from the body +Once for all by mortal absence +To return to it no more; +But when otherwise commanded +To it to return, it waiteth +In a certain state of passage, +And remains as 'twere suspended +In the universe, not having +Any special place allotted. +For the Almighty mind forecasting +All things, when from out His essence, +As th' exemplar, the fair pattern +Of His thought, this glorious fabric +He brought forth to light and gladness, +Saw this very incident, +And well knowing what would happen, +That this soul would here return, +Kept it for awhile inactive, +Seemingly unfixed, yet fixed. +This is the authentic answer +That theology, that sacred +Science, gives to what you have asked me. +But another point remaineth: +There are other places, mark me, +Both of glory and of pain, +Than you think; and of these latter +One is called the Purgatory, +Where the soul of him who haply +Dies in grace, is purged from stains, +Sinful stains which it contracted +In the world: for into heaven +None can pass till these are cancelled. +And thus, there 'tis purified, +Cleansed by fire from all that tarnished, +Till to God's divinest presence +Pure and clean at length it passes. + +KING. So you say, and I have nothing +To confirm what you advance here +But your word. Some proof now give me, +Give me something I can handle, +Something tangible to convince me +Of this truth, that I may grasp it, +And know what it is. And since +So much power and influence have you +With your God, implore His grace, +That I may believe the faster, +Some material fact to give me, +Something that we all can grapple, +Not mere creatures of the mind. +And remember that at farthest +But an hour remains in which +You must give me sure and ample +Signs of punishment and glory, +Or you die. These mighty marvels +Of your God here let them come, +Where the truth we can examine +For ourselves. And if we neither +Heaven or hell deserve to have here, +Show us, then, this Purgatory, +Which is different from the latter, +So that here we all may know +His omnipotence and grandeur. +Mind, God's honour rests upon you, +Tell Him to defend and guard it. +[Exeunt all but PATRICK. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE XV. + +PATRICK. + +PATRICK. Here, mighty Lord, dart down thy searching glance, +Arm'd with the dreadful lightnings of Thine ire, +Wing'd with Thy vengeance, as the bolt with fire, +And rout the squadrons of fell ignorance: +Come not in pity to the hostile band, +Treat not as friends Thy enemies abhorr'd, +But since they ask for portents, mighty Lord, +Come with the blood-red lightnings in Thy hand. +Of old Elias asked with burning sighs +For chastisement, and Moses did display +Wonders and portents; in the self-same way +Listen, O Lord, to my beseeching cries, +And though I be not great or good as they, +Still let my accents pierce the listening skies! +Portents and chastisement, both day and night +I ask, O Lord, may from Thy hand be given, +That Purgatory, Hell and Heaven, +May be revealed unto these mortals' sight. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE XVI. + +A Good Angel at one side, and on the other a Bad Angel. -- PATRICK. + +BAD ANGEL [to himself]. Fearful that the favouring skies +May accede to Patrick's prayer, +And discover to him where +Earth's most wondrous treasure lies, +Like a minister of light, +Full of scorn, I hither fly +It to chill and nullify. +Covering with my poison blight +His petition. + +GOOD ANGEL. Then give o'er, +Cruel monster; for in me +His protecting angel see. +But be silent, speak no more.-- +[to him. +Patrick, God has heard Thy prayer, +He has listen'd to thy vows, +And, as thou hast asked, allows +Earth's great secrets to lie bare. +Seek along this island ground +For a vast and darksome cave, +Which restrains the lake's dark wave. +And supports the mountains round; +He who dares to go therein, +Having first contritely told +All his faults, shall there behold +Where the soul is purged from sin. +He shall see, with mortal eyes, +Hell itself, where those who die +In their sins for ever lie +In the fire that never dies. +He shall see, in blest fruition, +Where the happy spirits dwell. +But of this be sure as well -- +He who without due contrition +Enters there to idly try +What the cave may be, doth go +To his death; he'll suffer woe, +While the Lord doth reign on high, +Who thy soul this day shall free +From this poor world's weariness. +It is thus that God doth bless +Those who love His name like thee. +He shall grant to thee in pity, +Bliss undreamed by mortal men, +Making thee a denizen +Of His own celestial city. +He shall to the world proclaim +His omnipotence and glory, +By the wondrous Purgatory +Which shall bear thy sainted name. +Lest thou think the promise vain +Of this miracle divine, +I will take this shape malign, +Which came hither to profane +Thy devotion, and within +This dark cavern's dark abyss +Fling it,-- there to howl and hiss +In the everlasting din. +[They disappear. + +PATRICK. Glory, glory unto Thee, +Mighty Lord; the heavens proclaim, +Miracles attest Thy name, +Wonders show that Thou must be.-- +[Calling. +King! + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE XVII. + +The King, PHILIP, LESBIA, LEOGAIRE, The Captain, People. -- PATRICK. + +KING. What would'st thou? + +PATRICK. Come with me +Through this mountain woodland drear, +Thou and all thy followers here, +Thou and they shall see therein +The dark place reserved for sin, +And rewards delightful sphere. +They shall have a passing view +Of a sight no tongue can tell, +An unending miracle, +To whose greatness shall be due +Their amazement ever new +Who its secrets shall unveil. +Yes, a perfect image pale +In the wonders guarded here, +Shall they see with awe and fear, +Of the realms of bliss and bale. +[Exit, followed by all. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE XVIII. + +A REMOTE PART OF THE MOUNTAIN WITH THE MOUTH OF A HORRIBLE CAVE. + +THE SAME. + +KING. Look, O Patrick, for you go +Turning towards a part forbidden, +Where the light of the sun is hidden +Even in the noon-tide's glow. +Through this wilderness of woe +Even the hunter in pursuit +Of his prey ne'er placed a foot +On its trackless wild walks green, +Since for ages it has been +Shunned alike by man and brute. + +PHILIP. We for many and many a year, +Who have lived here from our youth, +Never dared to learn the truth +Of the secrets hidden here; +For the entrance did appear +In itself enough to make +Even the bravest heart to quake. +No one yet has dared to brave +The wild rocks that guard this cave, +Or the waters of this lake. + +KING. And for auguries we heard, +Borne the troubled wind along, +Oft the sad funereal song +Of some lone nocturnal bird. + +PHILIP. Be the rash attempt deferred. + +PATRICK. Let not causeless fear arise; +For a treasure of the skies +Here is hidden. + +KING. What is fear? +Could it ever me come near +In an earthquake's agonies? +No; for though the flames should break +As from some sulphureous lake, +And the mountains' sides run red +From the molten fires outshed, +They could ne'er my courage shake, +Never make me fear. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE XIX. + +POLONIA. -- THE SAME. + +POLONIA. Oh, stay, +Wandering from the path astray, +Hapless crowd, rash, indiscreet, +Turn away your erring feet, +For misfortune lies that way. + +Here from myself with hurried footsteps flying, +I dared to treat this wilderness profound, +Beneath the mountain whose proud top defying +The pure bright sunbeam is with huge rocks crowned, +Hoping that here, as in its dark grave lying, +Never my sin could on the earth be found, +And I myself might find a port of peace +Where all the tempests of the world might cease. + +No polar star had hostile fate decreed me, +As on my perilous path I dared to stray, +So great its pride, no hand presumed to lead me, +And guide my silent footstep on its way. +Not yet the aspect of the place has freed me +From the dread terror, anguish and dismay, +Which were awakened by this mountain's gloom, +And all the hidden wonders of its womb. + +See ye not here this rock some power secureth, +That grasps with awful toil the hill-side brown, +And with the very anguish it endureth +Age after age seems slowly coming down? +Suspended there with effort, it obscureth +A mighty cave beneath, which it doth crown;-- +An open mouth the horrid cavern shapes, +Wherewith the melancholy mountain gapes.* + + +[footnote] * "But I remember, +Two miles on this side of the fort, the road +Crosses a deep ravine; 'tis rough and narrow, +And winds with short turns down the precipice; +And in its depth there is a mighty rock +Which has from unimaginable years, +Sustained itself with terror and with toil +Over the gulf, and with the agony +With which it clings seems slowly coming down; +Even as a wretched soul hour after hour +Clings to the mass of life: yet, clinging, leans; +And leaning, makes more dark the dread abyss +In which it fears to fall. Beneath this crag, +Huge as despair, as if in weariness +The melancholy mountain yawns."--THE CENCI. + +Shelly says, "An idea in this speech was suggested by a most sublime +passage in 'El Purgatorio de San Patricio' of Calderon." The same +idea is to be found in "Amor despues de la Muerte," "Los dos amantes +del Cielo," and other dramas of Calderon. +[end of footnote] + + +This, then, by mournful cypress trees surrounded, +Between the lips of rocks at either side, +Reveals a monstrous neck of length unbounded, +Whose tangled hair is scantily supplied +By the wild herbs that there the wind hath grounded, +A gloom whose depths no sun has ever tried, +A space, a void, the gladsome day's affright, +The fatal refuge of the frozen night. + +I wished to enter there, to make my dwelling +Within the cave; but here my accents fail, +My troubled voice, against my will rebelling. +Doth interrupt so terrible a tale.-- +What novel horror, all the past excelling, +Must I relate to you, with cheeks all pale, +Without cold terror on my bosom seizing, +And even my voice, my breath, my pulses freezing? + +I scarcely had o'ercome my hesitation, +And gone within the cavern's vault profound, +When I heard wails of hopeless lamentation, +Despairing shrieks that shook the walls around, +Curses, and blasphemy, and desperation, +Dark crimes avowed that would even hell astound, +Which heaven, I think, in order not to hear, +Had hid within this prison dark and drear. + +Let him come here who doubts what I am telling, +Let him here bravely enter who denies, +Soon shall he hear the sounds of dreadful yelling, +Soon shall the horrors gleam before his eyes. +For me, my voice is hushed, my bosom swelling, +Pants now with terror, now with strange surprise. +Nor is it right that human tongue should dare +High heaven's mysterious secrets to lay bare. + +PATRICK. This cave, O king, which here you see, concealeth +The mysteries of life as well as death: +Not, I should say, for him whose bosom feeleth +No true repentance, or no real faith; +But he who boldly enters, who revealeth +His sins, confessing them with penitent breath, +Shall see them all forgiven, his conscience clear, +And have alive his Purgatory here. + +KING. And dost thou think, O Patrick, that I owe +My blood so little, as to yield to dread, +And trembling fear like a weak woman show? +Say, who shall be the first this cave to tread? +What silent! Philip? + +PHILIP. Sire, I dare not go. + +KING. Then, Captain, thou? + +CAPTAIN. Enough to strike me dead +Is even the thought. + +KING. Leogaire, thou'lt surely dare? + +LEOGAIRE. The heavens, my lord, themselves exclaim forbear! + +KING. O cowards, lost to every sense of shame, +Unfit to gird the warrior's sword around +Your shrinking loins! Men are ye but in name. +Well, I myself shall be the first to sound +The depths of this enchantment, and proclaim +Unto this Christian that my heart unawed +Nor dreads his incantations nor his God! +[Egerius advances to the cave, and on entering sinks into it with +much noise, flames rise from below, and many voices are heard. + +POLONIA. How terrible! + +LEOGAIRE. How awful! + +PHILIP. What a wonder! + +CAPTAIN. The earth is breathing out its central fire. +[Exit. + +LEOGAIRE. The axes of the sky are burst asunder. +[Exit. + +POLONIA. The heavens are loosening their collected ire. +{Exit. + +LESBIA. The earth doth quake, and peals the sullen thunder. +[Exit. + +PATRICK. O, mighty Lord, who will not now admire +Thy wondrous works? +[Exit. + +PHILIP. Oh! who that's not insane +Will enter Patrick's Purgatory again? +[Exit. + + + + * * * * * + + +ACT THE THIRD. + +A STREET. IT IS NIGHT. + +SCENE I. + +JUAN PAUL, dressed ridiculously as a soldier, and LUIS ENIUS, very pensive. + +PAUL. Yes, the day would come I knew, +After long procrastination, +When a word of explanation +I should ask to have with you. +"Come with me," you said. Though dark, +Off I trudged with heavy heart +To point out to you the part +Where at morn you could embark; +Then again, with thundering voice, +Thus you spoke, "Where I must fly +Choose to come with me, or die." +And, since you allowed a choice, +Of two ills I chose the worst, +Which, sir, was to go with you. +As your shadow then I flew +'Cross the sea to England first, +Then to Scotland, then to France +then to Italy and Spain, +Round the world and back again, +As in some fantastic dance. +Not a country great or small +Could escape you, 'till, good lack! +Here we are in Ireland back:-- +Now, sir, I, plain Juan Paul, +Being perplexed to know what draws +You here now, with beard and hair +Grown so long, your speech, your air, +Changed so much, would ask the cause +Why you these disguises wear? +You by day ne'er leave the inn, +But when cold night doth begin +You a thousand follies dare, +Without bearing this in mind, +That we now are in a land +Wholly changed from strand to strand, +Where, in fact, we nothing find +As we left it. The old king +Died despairing, and his heir, +Lesbia, now the crown doth wear, +For her sister, hapless thing! +Poor Polonia . . . . + +LUIS. Oh, that name +Do not mention! do not kill me +By repeating what doth thrill me +To the centre of my frame +As with lightning. Yes, I know +That at length Polonia died. + +PAUL. Yes; our host was at her side +(He himself has told me so) +When they found her dead, and . . . . + +LUIS. Cease! +Of her death, oh! speak no more, +'Tis sufficient to deplore, +And to pray that she's at peace. + +PAUL. Leaving heathen sin and crime, +All the people far and near +Are become good Christians here. +For one Patrick, who some time +Now is dead . . . . + +LUIS. Is Patrick dead? + +PAUL. So I from our host have heard. + +LUIS [aside]. Badly have I kept my word!-- +But proceed. + +PAUL. The teaching spread +Of the faith of Christ, and gave, +As a proof complete and whole +Of the eternity of the soul, +The discovery of a cave.-- +Oh! it's the very name doth send +Terror through me. + +LUIS. Yes, I have heard +Of that cave, and every word +Made my hair to stand on end. +Those who in the neighbourhood +Dwell, see wonders every day. + +PAUL. Since, 'mid terror and dismay, +In your melancholy mood +You will no one hear or see, +Ever locked within your room, +It is plain you have not come +Aught to learn, how strange they be, +Of these things. It doth appear +Other work you are about. +Satisfy my foolish doubt, +And say why we have come here. + +LUIS. to your questions thus I yield: +Yes, I forced you, as you mention, +From your house, and my intention +Was to kill you in the field; +But I thought it best instead +You to make my steps attend +As my comrade and my friend, +Shaking off the mortal dread +Which forbad me to endure +Any stranger, and in fine, +That your arms being joined with mine, +I might feel the more secure. +Many a land, both far and near, +Passing through you fared right well; +And now answering I will tell +Why it is that we come here. +And 'tis this: I come to slay +Here a man who did me wrong, +'Tis for this I pass along, +Muffled in this curious way, +Hiding country, dress, and name; +And the night suits best for me, +For my powerful enemy +Can the first position claim +In the land. Since I avow +Why I hither have been led, +Listen now how I have sped +In my project until now. +I three days ago was brought +To this city in disguise, +For two nights, beneath the skies, +I my enemy have sought +In his street and at his door; +Twice a muffled figure came +And disturbed me in my aim, +Twice he called and stalked before +Him I followed in the street; +But when I the figure neared, +Suddenly he disappeared +As if wings were on his feet. +I this third night have brought you, +That should this mysterious shape +Come again, he sha'nt escape, +Being caught between us two; +Who he is we then can see. + +PAUL. Two? who are they? + +LUIS. You and I. + +PAUL. I'm not one. + +LUIS. Not one? How? Why? + +PAUL. No, sir, no. I cannot be +One, nor half a one. These stories +Faith! would frighten fifty Hectors; +What know I of Lady Spectres, +Or of Lord Don Purgatories? +All through life I've kept aloof +From the other world's affairs, +Shunning much superfluous cares; +But, my courage put to proof, +Bid me face a thousand men, +And if I don't cut and run +From the thousand, nay, from one, +Never trust to me again. +For I think it quite a case +Fit for Bedlam, if so high, +That a man would rather die, +Than just take a little race. +Such a trifle! Sir, to me +Life is precious; leave me here, +Where you'd find me, never fear. + +LUIS. Here's the house; to-night I'll be, +Philip, your predestined fate. +Now we'll see if heaven pretends +To defend him, and defends.-- +Watch here, you, beside the gate. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE II. + +A Muffled Figure. -- LUIS and PAUL. + +PAUL. There's no need to watch, for hither +Some one comes. + +LUIS. A lucky mortal +Am I, if the hour draws nigh +That will two revenges offer.* +Since this night there then will be +Naught to interrupt my project, +Slaying first this muffled figure +And then Philip. Slow and solemn +Comes this man again. I know him +By his gait. But whence this horror +That comes o'er me as I see him, +This strange awe that chills, that shocks me? + + +[footnote] *Asonante in o -- e to the end of Scene VIII. + + +THE FIGURE. Luis Enius! + +LUIS. Sir, I've seen you +Here the last two nights; your object? +If you call me, wherefore fly thus? +If 'tis me you seek, why mock me +By retiring? + +THE FIGURE. Follow me, +Then you'll know my name. + +LUIS. I'm stopped here +In this street by a little business.-- +To be quite alone imports me.-- +Wherefore first by killing you +I'll be free to kill another +[He draws his sword, but merely cuts the air. +Draw, then, draw your sword or not, +Thus the needful path I shorten +To two acts of vengeance. Heavens! +I but strike the air, cut nothing, +Sever nothing else. Quick! Paul, +Stop him as he stalks off yonder, +Near to you. + +PAUL. I'm bad at stopping. + +LUIS. Then your footsteps I will follow +Everywhere, until I learn +Who you are. [Aside.] (In vain his body +Do I strive to pierce. Oh, heavens! +Lightnings flash from off my sword here; +But in no way can I touch him, +As if sword and arm were shortened.) +[Exit following the figure, striking at it without touching it. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE III. + +PHILIP. -- PAUL. + +PAUL [aside]. God be with you both! But scarce +Has one vanished, when another +Comes to haunt me. Why, I'm tempted +By strange phantoms and hobgoblins +Like another San Antonio:-- +In this doorway I'll ensconce me, +Till my friend here kindly passes. + +PHILIP. Love, ambitious, bold, deep-plotted, +With the favours of a kingdom +Me thou mak'st a prosperous lover. +To the desert fled Polonia, +Where, mid savage rocks and forests, +Citizen of mighty mountains, +Islander of lonely grottoes, +She doth dwell, to Lesbia leaving +Crown and kingdom; through a stronger +Greed than love I Lesbia court,-- +For a queen is worth my homage. +From her trellis I have come, +From a sweet and pleasant converse. +But, what's this? Each night I stumble +On a man here at my doorstep. +Who is there? + +PAUL [aside]. To me he's coming. +Why on earth should every goblin +Pounce on me? + +PHILIP. Sir, Caballero. + +PAUL. These are names I don't acknowledge; +He can't speak to ME. + +PHILIP. This house +Is my home. + +PAUL. Which I don't covet; +May you for an age enjoy it, +Without billets. + +PHILIP. If important +Business in this street detains you +(Not a word whereon I offer), +Give me room that I may pass. + +PAUL [aside]. Somewhat timid, though quite proper, +Goblins can be cowards too.-- +Yes, sir, for a certain office +I am here; go in, and welcome; +I no gentleman would stop here +Bound for bed, nor is it right. + +PHILIP. The condition I acknowledge.-- +[Aside. +Well, fine spectres, to be sure, +Haunt this street: each night I notice +That a man here comes before me, +But when I approach him softly, +Hereabouts on my own threshold, +I, as now, have always lost him. +But what matters this to me? +[Exit. + +[PAUL draws his sword and makes several flourishes. +PAUL. As he's gone, the right and proper +Thing is this:-- Stay, stay, cold shadow, +Whether you're a ghost or ghostess, +I can't reach it. Why, by heaven! +Air alone I cut and chop here. +But if this is he we wait for +In the night-time like two blockheads +Faith! he is a lucky fellow +To have got to bed so promptly. +But another noise I hear +Sounding from that dark street yonder. +'Tis of swords and angry voices:-- +There I run to reconnoitre. +[Exit. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE IV. + +ANOTHER STREET. + +The Muffled Figure and LUIS. + +LUIS. Sir, already we have issued +From that street; if aught there stopped us, +We are here alone, and may +Hand to hand resume the combat. +And since powerless is my sword +Thee to wound, I throw me on thee +To know who thou art. Declare, +Art thou demon, man, or monster? +What! no answer? Then I thus +Dare myself to solve the problem, +[He tears the cloak from the Figure, and finds beneath it a skeleton. +And find out . . . . Oh, save me, heaven! +God! what's this I see? what horrid +Spectacle! What frightful vision! +What death-threatening fearful portent! +Stiff and stony corse, who art thou? +That of dust and ashes formed +Now dost live? + +THE FIGURE. Not know thyself? +This is thy most faithful portrait; +I, alas! am Luis Enius. +[Disappears.* + + +[footnote] *The interview between Luis Enius and the Skeleton, says +a recent writer, "is a scene truly Calderonic -- the hour, the place, +the intended assassin, and the sudden reflection of himself, with his +guilty conscience impersonate before him; it reminds us of that wild +fable of Jeremy Taylor or Fuller, about the bird with a human face, +that feeds on human flesh until it chances to see its reflection in a +stream, and then it pines away for grief that it has killed its +fellow." -- WESTMINSTER REVIEW, vol. liv. p. 306. + + +LUIS. Save me, heaven! what words of horror! +Save me, heaven! what sight of woe! +Prey of shadows and misfortunes. +Ah, I die. +[He falls on the ground. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE V. + +PAUL. -- LUIS. + +PAUL. It is the voice +Of my master. Succour cometh +Opportunely now in me. +Sir! + +LUIS. Ah! why return, dread monster? +I am overwhelmed, I faint here +At your voice. + +PAUL [aside]. God help his noddle! +He's gone mad! -- Dread monster? No, +[Aloud. +I am Juan Paul, that donkey +Who, not knowing why or wherefore, +Is your servant. + +LUIS. Ah! good, honest +Paul, I knew you not, so frightened +Am I. But at that why wonder, +If myself I do not know? +Did you see a fearful corse here, +A dead body with a soul, +An apparent man supported +By his skeleton alone, +Bones from which the flesh had rotted, +Fingers rigid, gaunt, and cold, +Naked trunk, uncouth, abhorrent, +Vacant spaces whence the eyes, +Having fallen, left bare the sockets?-- +Whither has he gone? + +PAUL. If I +Saw that ghost, upon my honour, +I could never say I saw it; +For more dead than that dead body +I had fallen on the other side +At the moment. + +LUIS. And no wonder; +For my voice was mute, my breath +Choked, my heart's warm beat forgotten, +Clothed with ice were all my senses, +Shod with lead my feet, my forehead +Cold with sweat, I saw suspended +Heaven's two mighty poles upon me, +The brief Atlases sustaining +Such a burden being my shoulders. +It appeared as if there started +Rocks from every tender blossom, +Giants from each opening rose; +For the earth's disrupted hollows +Wished from out their graves to cast +Forth the dead who lay there rotten; +Ah, among them I beheld +Luis Enius! Heaven be softened! +Hide me, hide me, from myself! +Bury me in some deep corner +Of earth's centre! Let me never +See myself, since no self-knowledge +Have I had! But now I have it; +Now I know I am that monster +Of rebellion, who defied, +In my madness, pride, and folly, +God Himself; the same, whose crimes +Are so numerous and so horrid, +That it were slight punishment, +If the whole wrath of the Godhead +Was outpoured on me, and whilst +God was God, eternal torments +I should have to bear in hell. +But I have this further knowledge, +They were done against a God +So divine, that He has promised +To grant pardon, if my sins +I with penitent tears acknowledge. +Such I shed; and, Lord, to prove +That to-day to be another +I begin, being born anew, +To Thy hands my soul I offer. +Not as a strict judge then judge me, +For the attributes of the Godhead +Are His justice and His mercy; +With the latter, not the former, +Judge me, then, and fix what penance +I shall do to gain that object. +What will be the satisfaction +Of my life? + +[Music (within). The Purgatory. + +LUIS. Bless me, heaven! what's this I hear? +A sweet strain divine and solemn; +It appears a revelation +From on high, since heaven doth often +Help mysteriously the sinner. +And since I herein acknowledge +A divine interposition, +I will go into the Purgatory, +Called, of Patrick, and fulfil, +Humbly, faithfully, the promise +Which I gave him long ago, +If it is my happy fortune +To see Patrick. If the attempt +Is, as rumour hath informed me, +Most terrific, since no human +Strength avails against the horrors +Of the place, or resolution +To endure the demons' torments, +Still my sins I must remember +Were as dreadful. Skilful doctors +Give for dangerous diseases +Dangerous remedies to stop them.-- +Come, then, with me, Paul, and see +How here penitent and prostrate +At the bishop's feet I'll kneel, +And confess, for greater wonder, +All my awful sins aloud. + +PAUL. Go alone, then, for that project, +Since so brave a man as you are +Has no need of an accomplice; +And there's no one I have heard of +Who e'er went to hell escorted +By his servant. I'll go home, +And live pleasantly in my cottage +Without care. If ghosts there be, +I'm content with matrimony. +[Exit. + +LUIS. Public were my sins, and so +Public penance I will offer +In atonement. Like one crazed, +Crying in the crowded cross-ways, +I'll confess aloud my crimes. +Men, wild beasts, rude mountains, forests, +Globes celestial, flinty rocks, +Tender plants, dry elms, thick coppice, +Know that I am Luis Enius, +Tremble at my name, that monster +Once of pride, as now I am +Of humility the wonder. +I have faith and certain hope +Of great happiness before me, +If in God's great name shall Patrick +Aid me in the Purgatory. +[Exit. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE VI. + +A WOOD, IN THE CENTRE OF WHICH IS SEEN A MOUNTAIN, FROM WHICH POLONIA DESCENDS. + +POLONIA. + +POLONIA. To Thee, O Lord, my spirit climbs, +To Thee from every lonely hill +I burn to sacrifice my will +A thousand and a thousand times. +And such my boundless love to Thee +I wish each will of mine a living soul could be. + +Would that my love I could have shown, +By leaving for Thy sake, instead +Of that poor crown that press'd my head, +Some proud, imperial crown and throne -- +Some empire which the sun surveys +Through all its daily course and gilds with constant rays. + +This lowly grot, 'neath rocks uphurled, +In which I dwell, though poor and small, +A spur of that stupendous wall, +The eighth great wonder of the world, +Doth in its little space excel +The grandest palace where a king doth dwell. + +Far better on some natural lawn +To see the morn its gems bestrew, +Or watch it weeping pearls of dew +Within the white arms of the dawn; +Or view, before the sun, the stars +Drive o'er the brightening plain their swiftly-fading cars. + +Far better in the mighty main, +As night comes on, and clouds grow grey, +To see the golden coach of day +Drive down amid the waves of Spain. +But be it dark, or be it bright, +O Lord! I praise Thy name by day and night. + +Than to endure the inner strife, +The specious glare, but real weight +Of pomp, and power, and pride, and state, +And all the vanities of life; +How would we shudder could we deem +That life itself, in truth, is but a fleeting dream. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE VII. + +LUIS. -- POLONIA. + +LUIS [aside]. True to my purpose on I go, +With footsteps firm and bosom brave, +Seeking for that mysterious cave +Wherein the pitying heavens will show +How I salvation there may gain, +By bearing in this life the Purgatorial pain. +[To POLONIA. +Tell me, O holy woman! thou +Who in these wilds a home hast found, +A dweller in this mountain ground +Obedient to some sacred vow, +Which is the road to Patrick's cave, +Where penitential man his soul in life may save? + +POLONIA. O, happy traveller! who here +Hast come so far in storm and shine, +Within this treasury divine +To feel and find salvation near, +Well can I guide thee on thy way, +Since 'tis for this alone amid these wilds I stray. + +Seest thou this mountain? + +LUIS. Ah! I see +My death in it. + +POLONIA [aside]. My heart grows cold. +Ah! who is this that I behold? + +LUIS [aside]. I cannot think it. Is it she? + +POLONIA [aside]. 'Tis Luis, now I know. + +LUIS [aside]. Perhaps illusion it may be +To baffle my intent, and lead +My erring feet astray. -- [to POLONIA}. Proceed. + +POLONIA [aside]. Say, can it be to conquer me +The common enemy doth send +This spectre here? + +LUIS. You do not speak. + +POLONIA. Attend. +This mighty mountain, rock bestrown, +Full well the dreaded secret knows; +But no one to its centre goes +By any path o'er land alone: +He who would see this wondrous cave +Must in a bark put forth and tempt the lake's dark wave. + +[Aside.] I struggle with a wish to wreak +Revenge, which pity doth subdue. + +LUIS [aside]. It doth my happiness renew +Once more to see and hear her speak. + +POLONIA [aside]. Within me opposite thoughts contend. + +LUIS [aside]. Ah, me! I die. -- You do not speak. + +POLONIA. Attend. +This darksome lake doth all surround +The lofty mountain's rugged base, +And so to reach the awful place +An easy passage may be found: +A sacred convent in the island stands, +Midway between the mountain and the sands. + +Some pious priests inhabit there, +And for this task alone they live, +With loving zeal to freely give +The helping hand, the strengthening prayer -- +Confession, and the Holy Mass, +And every needful help to all who thither pass. + +Telling them what they first must do, +Before they dare presume to go, +Alive, within the realm of woe.-- +[Aside.] Let not this enemy subdue +My soul, O Lord! + +LUIS [aside]. My hopes are fair. +Let me not feel, O Lord! the anguish of despair, + +Seeing before my startled sight +My greatest, deepest crime arise; +Let not the fiend my soul that tries, +Subdue me in this dreadful fight. + +POLONIA [aside]. 'Gainst what a powerful foe must I defend +Myself to-day! + +LUIS. You do not speak. + +POLONIA. Attend. + +LUIS. With quicker speed your story tell, +For well I know my soul hath need +That I should go with swifter speed! + +POLONIA. And me it doth import as well +That you should go away. + +LUIS. Agreed. +Now, woman, point the way to where my path doth lead. + +POLONIA. No one accompanied can brave +The terrors of this gloomy lake; +And so a skiff you needs must take, +And try alone the icy wave; +Being in that most trying strait +The absolute master of your acts and fate. + +Come where within a secret cave +Beside the shore the boat doth lie, +And trusting in the Lord on high, +Embark upon the crystal wave +Of this remote lone inland sea. + +LUIS. My life and all I have I place, O Lord! in Thee. +And so I trust me to the bark; +But, O my soul! what sight is here, +A coffin doth the bark appear; +And I upon the waters dark +Alone must cross the icy tide. +[He enters. + +POLONIA. Oh! turn not back, but follow and confide + +LUIS [within]. I've conquered! sweet Polonia's shade, +Since sight of thee has not undone +My shuddering soul. + +POLONIA. And I have won, +Here in this Babylon delayed, +O'er wrath and rage the victory. + +LUIS [within]. Thy feigned resemblance does not frighten me, +Though thou dost take a form +Might tempt my steps astray +And make me turn despairing from my way. + +POLONIA. Thy fear doth badly thee inform, +Poor to be brave and rich to be afraid, +For I Polonia am, and not her shade, +The same that thou didst slay, +But who by God's decree +Restored to life, even in this misery, +Is happier far to-day. + +LUIS [within]. Since I my sinful state +Confess, and feel too well its fearful weight, +Thy wrong, oh, pardon too! + +POLONIA. I give it, and approve of thy design. + +LUIS [within]. My faith, at least, I never will resign. + +POLONIA. That grace will be thy safeguard. + +LUIS [within]. Then, adieu! + +POLONIA. Adieu! + +LUIS [within]. May God in pity save. + +POLONIA. And bring thee back victorious from the cave. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE VIII. + +THE ENTRANCE OF A CONVENT -- AT THE END THE CAVE OF PATRICK. + +Two Canons Regular; afterwards Luis. + +FIRST CANON. See, the waters of the lake +Move although no breeze doth blow:* +Without doubt to-day some pilgrim +Roweth to this island shore. + + +[footnote] *Single asonante in the long accented o, which is kept up +to the end of the Scene. + + +SECOND CANON. Come unto the strand to see +Who can be so brave and bold +As to seek our gloomy dwelling, +Crossing the dark waters o'er. + +[Enter LUIS. +LUIS. Here my boat, my coffin, rather, +On the billows I bestow. +Who his sepulchre has ever +Steered, as I, through fire and snow? +What a pleasant spot is this! +Here has Spring, methinks, invoked +Flowers of high and low degree +To assemble at her court. +But this dismal mountain here, +How unlike the plain below! +Yet they are the better friends +By the contrasts that they show. +there the mournful birds of prey +Hoarsely croak, presaging woe, +Here the warblers in their joy +Charm us with their tuneful notes. +There the torrents leaping headlong +Fright us with their frenzied roar, +Here the crystal streamlets gliding +Mirror back the sun's bright gold. +Half way 'twixt that ugliness +And this beauty, I behold +A plain building whose grave front +Fear and love at once provokes. + +FIRST CANON. Happy wanderer, who here +Hast arrived with heart so bold, +Come unto my arms. + +LUIS. The ground +That you tread on suits me more. +Oh, for charity conduct me +To the Prior of your fold, +To the Abbot of this convent. + +FIRST CANON. Though unworthy, you behold +Him in me. Speak. What's your wish? + +LUIS. Father, if my name I told, +I'm afraid that swiftly flying, +With a terror uncontrolled, +You would leave me: for my works +Are so shocking to unfold, +That to see them not, the sun +Wraps him round in mourning robes. +I am an abyss of crimes, +A wild sea that has no shore; +I am a broad map of guilt, +And the greatest sinner known. +Yes, in me, to tell it briefly +In one comprehensive word +(Here my breath doth almost fail me), +Luis Enius behold! +I come here this cave to enter, +If for sins so manifold +Aught can ever satisfy, +Let my penance thus atone +To the Bishop of Hibernia +I've confessed, and am absolved, +Who informed of my intention +With a gracious love consoled +All my fears, and unto thee +Sent these letters I unfold. + +FIRST CANON. Do not in a single day +Take, my son, a step so bold, +For these things require precaution +More than can at once be told. +Stay here as our guest some days, +Then at leisure we can both +See about it and decide. + +LUIS. No, my father, no, oh, no! +Never from the ground I'll rise, +Where here prostrate I am thrown, +Till you grant to me this good. +It was God that touched my soul, +And inspired me to come here; +Not a vain desire to know, +Not ambition to find out +Secrets God, perchance, withholds. +Do not baffle this intention, +For the call is heaven's alone. +Oh, my father! yield in pity, +With me in my griefs condole, +Give my sorrows consolation, +Heal the anguish of my soul. + +FIRST CANON. Luis, you have not considered +what you ask of me; you know +Nothing of the infernal torments +You must bear: to undergo +These your strength is insufficient. +Many are there, more the woe! +Who go in, but few, alas! +Who return. + +LUIS. Your threats forebode +Much; but still they fright not me; +For I do protest, I go +But to purge away my sins, +Which if numbered are much more +Than the atoms of the sun +And the sands upon the shore. +I will ever have my hope +Firmly fixed upon the Lord, +At whose holy name even hell +Is subdued. + +FIRST CANON. The fervid glow +Of your words compels me now +To unlock the awful doors. +Luis, you behold the cave: +See! +[He opens the mouth of the cave. + +LUIS. Oh, save me, gracious God! + +FIRST CANON. What! dismayed? + +LUIS. No, not dismayed; +Still it scared me to behold. + +FIRST CANON. I admonish you again, +For no lesser cause to go, +Than a firm belief that there +For your sins you may atone. + +LUIS. Father, I am in the cave: +Listen to my voice once more, +Men and wild beasts, skies and mountains, +Day and night, and sun and moon, +To you all I here protest, +Ay, a thousand times make known, +That I enter here to suffer +Torments for my sins untold; +For so great, so dread a penance +Is but little to atone +For such sins as mine, believing +That the cave salvation holds. + +FIRST CANON. Enter then, and in your mouth, +As within your heart's deep core, +Be the name of Jesus. + +LUIS. Be +With me, Lord, O gracious Lord, +For here, armed but with Thy faith, +I am pitted 'gainst my foe +In the open field. That name +Will my enemy o'erthrow. +Crossing myself many times +I advance. Oh, save me, God! +[He enters the cave which they close. + +FIRST CANON. Of the many who have entered +None has equal courage shown. +Oh, enable him, just Jesus, +To resist the demon host +And their wiles, relying ever +Upon Thee, divinest Lord. +[Exeunt. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE IX. + +LESBIA, PHILIP, LEOGAIRE, The Captain, and POLONIA. + +LESBIA. Before we reach the place, +Whither you wish to lead us, for a space +Let us say why we came +To see you here to-day: a definite aim +All of us here has brought. + +POLONIA. Speak as we go whatever be your thought, +Still following where I lead, +For I a sight that doth all sights exceed +Will bring you here to see. + +LESBIA. What, then, our wishes were you hear from me. +Polonia, you desired +In this wild mountain waste to live retired, +Making of me the heir, +While living, of your kingdom. I would share +With you in turn my plans, however small, +And so I hither come to tell you all. +My will is in your hands; +I ask not counsel, sister, but commands. +A single woman scarce can ever be +Strong through advice, and of necessity +She must be married. + +POLONIA. Yes; and if your choice +Has fallen on Philip I may well rejoice, +For then to me you'll owe +Both crown and husband. + +PHILIP. May you live whilst glow +The sun's bright beams, that orb which dies at night, +And Phoenix of its rays is born with morning's light. + +POLONIA. Then since you thus have gained +Your wish, ye two, now free and unconstrained, +Listen to what I tell, +And all who hear me listen too, as well. +With all the outward show +Of fervour came a man, whom we all know, +Seeking for Patrick's cave, +To enter there, and so his soul to save. +He entered it, and cometh forth today, +And 'tis because my terror and dismay +Are balanced by my wonder, that with me +I bring you to behold this holy prodigy. +I do not tell you who he is lest fear +Should so my heart make craven, that I ne'er +Could reach the end I sought:-- +'Tis for this object that you here are brought. + +LESBIA. It is but only right +That I should mingle terror with delight. + +POLONIA. If strength from him hath fled, +And he extended in the cave lies dead, +At least 'twill show +His punishment; and if he comes, we'll know +The mystery that is here; +If safe he comes, who cometh forth, through fear +Perchance he may not speak, +But, flying men, some solitude may seek +To live and die alone. + +LEOGAIRE. What mighty mysteries lie here unknown. + +CAPTAIN. The time is opportune that we come here, +For the religious whom we see draw near, +All bathed in tears, now go +To the cave's mouth in solemn, silent row +To throw the gates aside. + + + + * * * * * + + +SCENE X. + +The procession advances to the cave; the gates are opened by the +Prior and his assistants. LUIS ENIUS comes forth, astonished.-- THE +SAME. + +PRIOR. And those of heaven, O Lord, keep open wide +To penitent tears and sighs. +May this poor sinner from these dungeons rise, +This dark and dismal place, +Where never shines the radiance of Thy face. + +POLONIA. The gate is opened. + +PRIOR. Oh, what happiness! + +PHILIP. 'Tis Luis! + +LUIS. Bless me, heaven! in pity bless! +Ah! is it possible that I am here +Again on earth after so many a year, +And that once more I see +The light of the sun? + +CAPTAIN. How rapt! + +LEOGAIRE. How dazed is he! + +PRIOR. Embrace us all, my son. + +LUIS. My arms were prison chains to every one. +Polonia, since thou'rt here, +Thy pity I may claim without a fear. +And thou, O Philip, know +That thrice an angel saved thee from the blow +Of my sharp sword: two nights I watched for thee +To slay thee; may my error pardoned be. +Now flying from myself, oh, let me hide, +And in some wilderness abide -- +Far from the world in solitude and pain, +For he who saw what I have seen would feign, +So suffering live, so die. + +PRIOR. Then on the part of God, O Enius! I +Command thee what thou hast seen at once to say. + +LUIS. So sacred a command I must obey:-- +And that the startled world may now begin +A better course, and man from mortal sin +My words may waken like some midnight wail, +Listen, O grave assembly to my tale. +After all the preparations, +Fit and solemn were effected,* +Which in such a perilous case +Might be needed and expected, +And when I from all around me, +Firm in faith, with courage strengthened, +Tenderly farewell had taken +This dark cavern here to enter, +I my trust reposed in God, +And my lips repeating ever +Those mysterious, mystic words, +At which even the demons tremble, +I then placed me on the threshold, +Where, until, as I expected, +They would close the gate, I stood. +It was closed, and I remember +Then I found me in black night, +Whence the light was so ejected, +That I closed on it mine eyes. +(A strange way it seems, but certain +To see better in the dark.) +With my lids thus closed together +On I went, and felt a wall +Which in front of me extended; +And by following it, and groping +For about the length of twenty +Paces, came upon some rocks, +And perceived through a small crevice +Of this rugged mountain wall +That a doubtful glimmer entered +Of a light that was not light, +As when the day the dark disperses, +If 'tis morning, or not morning, +Oft the twilight is uncertain. +With light steps a path pursuing, +By the left-hand side I entered, +When I felt a strange commotion; +The firm earth began to tremble, +And upheaving 'neath my feet, +Ruin and convulsion threatened. +Stupified I stopped there, when +With a voice which woke my senses +From forgetfulness and fainting, +Loud a thunder-clap re-echoed, +And the ground on which I stood +Bursting open in the centre, +It appeared as if I fell +To a depth where I lay buried +In the loosened stones and earth +Which had after me descended. +Then I found me in a hall +Built of jasper, where the presence +Of the chisel was made known +By its ornate architecture. +Through a door of bronze twelve men +Then advanced and came directly +Where I stood, who, clothed alike +In unspotted snow-white dresses, +With a courteous air received me, +And too humbly did me reverence. +One, who seemed to be among them +The superior, said: "Remember +That in God you place your faith, +And that you be not dejected +In your battle with the demons; +For if moved by what they threaten, +Or may promise, you turn back, +You will have to dwell for ever +In the lowest depths of hell +Amid torments most excessive." +Angels were these men for me, +And so greatly was I strengthened +By their counsel and advice +That revived I once more felt me. +On a sudden then the whole +Hall unto mine eyes presented +Nothing but infernal visions, +Fallen angels, the first rebels, +And in forms so horrible, +So disgusting, that resemblance +It would be in vain to look for; +And one said to me: "Demented +Reckless fool, who here hast wished +Prematurely to present thee +To thy destined punishment, +And the pains that thou deservest; +If thy sins are so immense, +That thyself must needs condemn them, +Since thou in the eye of God +Never can have hope of mercy, +Why has thou come here thyself +To endure them? Back to earth, then, +Go, oh! go, and end thy life; +And as thou hast lived, so perish. +Then again thou'lt come to see us; +For hath hell prepared already +That dread seat in which thou must +Sit for ever and for ever."-- +I did answer not a word; +And then giving me some heavy +Blows, my hands and feet they bound, +Tieing them with thongs together, +And then caught and wounded me +With sharp hooks of burning metal, +Dragging me through all the cloisters, +Where they lit a fire and left me +Headlong plunged amid the flames. +I but cried, "O Jesus! help me." +At the words the demons fled, +And the fire went out and ended +Then they brought me to a plain +Where the blackened earth presented +Fruits of thistles and of thorns, +'Stead of pink and rose sweet scented. +Here a biting wind passed by, +Which with subtle sharpness entered +Even my bones, whose faintest breath +Like the keenest sword-edge cleft me. +Here in the profoundest depths +Sadly, mournfully lamented +Myriad souls, their parents cursing +From whose loins they had descended. +Such despairing shrieks and cries, +Such blaspheming screams were blended, +Such atrocious oaths and curses +So repeated and incessant, +That the very demons shuddered. +I passed on, and in a meadow +Found me next, whose plants and grasses +Were all flames, which waved and bent them, +As when in the burning August +Wave the gold ears all together. +So immense it was, the sight +Never could make out where ended +This red field, and in it lay +An uncountable assemblage +All recumbent in the fire; +Through their bodies and their members +Burning spikes and nails were driven; +These with feet and hands extended +Were held nailed upon the ground, +Vipers of red fire the entrails +Gnawed of some; while others lying, +With their teeth in maniac frenzy +Bit the earth; and some there were +Piecemeal who themselves dismembered, +And who seemed to die, but only +To revive and die for ever. +There the ministers of death +Flung me from them bound and helpless, +But at the sweet name of Jesus +All their fury fled and left me. +I passed on, and found me where +Some were cured, by a strange method, +Of their cruel wounds and torments; +Lead and burning pitch were melted, +And being poured upon their sores +Made a cautery most dreadful. +Who that hears me will not mourn? +Who that hears this awful lesson +Will not sigh and will not weep, +Will not fear and will not tremble? +Then I saw a certain building, +Out of which bright rays extended +From the windows and the doors, +As when conflagration settles +On a house, the flame bursts forth +Where an opening is presented. +"This," they told me, "is the villa +Of delights, the bath of pleasures, +The abode of the luxurious, +Where are punished all those women +Who were in the other life, +From frivolity excessive, +Too much given to scented waters, +Unguents, rouges, baths, and perfumes."-- +I went in, and there beheld, +In a tank of cold snow melted, +Many lovely women bathing, +With an upturned look of terror; +Underneath the water they +Were the prey of snakes and serpents, +For the fishes and the sirens +Of this sea they represented; +In the clear transparent crystal +Stiff and frozen were their members, +Icy hard their hair was lifted, +Chattering struck their teeth together. +Passing out, the demons brought me +To a mountain so tremendous +In its height, that as it rose +Through the sky its peak dissevered, +If it did not tear and rend, +The vast azure veil celestial; +In the middle of this peak +A volcano stood, which, belching +Flames, appeared as if to spit them +In the very face of heaven. +From this burning cone, this crater, +Fire at intervals ascended +In which issued many souls, +Who again its womb re-entered, +Oft repeating and renewing +This ascending and descending. +At this time a scorching wind +Caught me when I least expected, +Blowing me from where I stood, +So that instantly it set me +In the depths of that abyss. +I too was shot up: a second +Wind-gust came, that with it brought +Myriad legions, who impelled me +Rudely to another part, +Where it seemed I saw assembled +All the other souls I had seen, +But who here were all collected; +And though this was the abode +Where the pains were most excessive, +I remarked that all therein +Faces bore of glad expression, +Countenances calm and sweet, +No impatience in their gestures +Or their words; but with their eyes +Fixed on heaven, as if thus set there +To ask mercy, ever weeping +Tears of tenderness and penance. +That it was the Purgatory +I at once by this detected, +Where the happy souls are purged from +Their more venial offences. +I was not subdued even here, +Though the demons stormed and threatened +Me the more: I rather felt +By the sight renewed and strengthened. +Then they, seeing that they could not +Shake my constancy, presented +To my eyes their greatest torments, +That which is in an especial +Sense called hell; and so they brought me +To a river, all the herbage +Of whose banks was flowers of fire, +And whose stream was sulphur melted; +The dread monsters of its tide +Were the hydras and the serpents; +It was very wide, and o'er it +Was a narrow bridge suspended, +Which but seemed a line, no more, +And so delicate and slender +That in my opinion no one +Without breaking it could ever +Pass across. "Look here," they said, +"By this narrow way 'tis destined +Thou must cross; see thou the means. +And for thy o'erwhelming terror +See how those have fared who tried +Before thee." and then directly +I saw those who tried to pass +Fall into the stream, where serpents +Tore them in a thousand pieces +With their claws and teeth's sharp edges. +I invoked the name of God, +And could dare with it to venture +To the other side to pass, +Without yielding to the terror +Of the winds and of the waves, +Though they fearfully beset me. +Yes I passed, and in a wood, +So delightful and so fertile, +Found me, that in it I could, +After what had passed, refresh me. +On my way as I advanced, +Cedars, palms, their boughs extended, +Trees of paradise indeed, +As I may with strictness term them; +All the ground being covered over +With the rose and pink together +Formed a carpet, in whose hues +White and green and red were blended. +There the amorous song-birds sang +Tenderly their sweet distresses, +Keeping, with the thousand fountains +Of the streams, due time and measure. +Then upon my vision broke +A great city, proud and splendid, +Which had even the sun itself +For its towers' and turrets' endings; +All the gates were of pure gold, +Into which had been inserted +Exquisitely, diamonds, rubies, +Topaz, chrysolite, and emerald. +Ere I reached the gates they opened, +And the saints in long procession +Solemnly advanced to meet me, +Men and women, youths and elders, +Boys and girls and children came, +All so joyful and contented. +Then the seraphim and angels, +In a thousand choirs advancing, +To their golden instruments +Sang the symphonies of heaven; +After them at last approached +The most glorious and resplendent +Patrick, the great patriarch, +Who his gratulations telling +That I had fulfilled my word +Ere I died, as he expected, +He embraced me; all displaying +Joy and gladness in my welfare. +Thus encouraged he dismissed me, +Telling me no mortal ever, +While in life, that glorious city +Of the saints could hope to enter; +That once more unto the world +I should go my days to end there. +Finally my way retracing, +I came back, quite unmolested +By the dark infernal spirits, +And at last the gate of entrance +Having reached, you all came forward +To receive me and attend me. +And since I from so much danger +Have escaped, oh! deign to let me, +Pious fathers, here remain +Till my life is happily ended.** + +[footnote] *Asonante in e--e, which is kept up to the end. + + +[footnote] **For the account of St. Patrick's Purgatory, as given by +Messingham, see Notes. + + + + * * * * * + + +For with this the history closes, +As it is to us presented +By Dionysius the Carthusian, +With Henricus Salteriensis, +Matthew Paris, Ranulph Higden, +And Caesarius Heisterbacensis, +Marcus Marulus, Mombritius, +David Rothe, the prudent prelate, +And Vice-Primate of all Ireland, +Belarminus, Dimas Serpi, +Bede, Jacobus, and Solinus, +Messingham, and to express it +In a word, the Christian faith +And true piety that defend it. +For the play is ended where +Its applause, I hope, commences.* + + +[footnote] *For an explanation of this list of names, now for the +first time correctly printed, see Note on "The authorities for the +Legend, as given by Calderon." + + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + +NOTES. + + + +ACT THE FIRST. + +SCENE II., p. 247. + +"Patrick is my name, my country +Ireland, and an humble hamlet +Scarcely known to men, called 'Empthor', +Is my place of birth." + +The passage in the original is as follows:-- +"Mi propio nombre es Patricio, +Mi patria Irland o Hibernia, +Mi pueblo 'es Tax.'" + 'Hartzenbusch', t. I, p. 150. + +This is the reading of all the editions, and has been adopted in the +German translation of the drama by Al. Jeitteles (Brunn, 1824). +"Tax" looks very unlike the name of a village, and it appears to me +to be simply a misprint. The whole of this speech of St. Patrick is +taken from the 'Vida y Purgatorio' of Juan Perez de Montalvan. The +description of St. Patrick's birth-place, as given by Montalvan, is +as follows:-- "En cuya jurisdicion ay un Pueblo, de pocos moradores, +Ilamado "Emptor". Aqui nacio un moco," etc. (edition of 1664, f. I.) +It is quite plain that "es Tax" in Calderon's play is an easily +understood misprint for the "Emptor" of Montalvan. + +"Mi patria Irlanda o Hibernia, +Mi pueblo Emptor," + +even metrically, is a better reading than -- +"Mi patria Irlanda o Hibernia, +Mi pueblo es Tax." + +In the hymn of St. Fiacc, a contemporary of the Apostle, the +birthplace of St. Patrick is said to have been at "Empthor," or +"Nemthur," as it is sometimes printed. The same locality is assigned +to it in the "Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick", but considerable +controversy has arisen as to the exact position of the place. See +"The Life of Saint Patrick", by P. Lynch, Dublin, 1828: "St. Patrick, +Apostle of Ireland", by J. H. Todd, D.D. (1864); and "The Life of St. +Patrick", by M. F. Cusack, Kenmare, Co. Kerry (1869), a most +elaborate and very beautiful work. + + +SCENE II., p. 252. + +This long address of Patrick is founded on the following passages of +the story as originally told in Montalvan's "Vida y Purgatorio de San +Patricio", Madrid, 1627. The translation is made as literal as +possible, to show how closely Calderon followed even the language of +Montalvan. + +Chapter I. -- "Between the north and west is situated the Island of +Hibernia, or Ireland, as it is at present more usually called. It +was once known as the Island of Saints, because its inhabitants were +ever ready to shed their blood in the lists of martyrdom, which is +the highest proof of courage which the Faithful can give; since life +being so dear to us, it is a most heroic act for the sake of religion +to offer it to the sacrilegious hands of a tyrant that only lives in +seeing others die. + +"In this island there was a village with a few inhabitants, called +Emptor, which the sea, like a cincture of snow, not only encircled +but appeared to bind. Here was born a youth of such virtuous +dispositions that he seemed to belie the promise of his years, since +virtue and adolescence are not easily reconciled. He gave himself +much to the reading of the Lives of the Saints, of whose exercises he +was a great imitator, very fearful of those snares which lie in the +way of youth, and which, though he escaped, he was not without a +disposition to fall into." . . . . + +[This youth was St. Patrick's father, who married Conchessa, a French +lady, as mentioned by Calderon, who, in the older Lives of St. +Patrick, is said to have been the sister of St. Martin of Tours. +After the birth of Patrick, St. Conchessa, his mother, retired to a +convent, and his father became a priest. The story then continues.] + +"Patrick remained in his early years under the tutelage of his aunt, +and God was so desirous of showing to the world the favours with +which He had pre-determined to honour that pure soul, that He did not +wait for the time when Patrick would be of an age to ask for them; +since before he could speak the words God declared Himself his +friend. For a blind man, Gormas (a neighbour of his in that +village), heard one day a voice in the air which said to him, that ifhe +went to Patrick (a child recently baptised), who would with his right +hand make the sign of the cross upon his eyes, he would be restored +to sight. He did so, and saw: God no doubt to foreshadow by this the +great things that he would eventually work through this His servant. +And this predestination, as it were, He made more remarkable by +another miracle, which, if it was not greater, was more acknowledged +and more widely known from the number of persons who were astonished +at beholding it. In a certain year, it happened that such a quantity +of snow had fallen from heaven, so great was the extent of the thaw +when the sun melted it, that the water covered all the ground, and +grew to the dimensions of a lake, which, spreading into the village, +inundated all the houses, putting even that of Patrick in the +greatest danger. But he, being then only ten years old, with a +lively and courageous faith made the sign of the cross upon the +waters, and in the sight of all compelled them to retire into the bed +of the sea, the land remaining as dry and as free from snow as in the +height of summer. . . . . + +"One morning, being about the age of sixteen years, as he stood by +the shore of the sea, reciting the Psalter with some of his +companions, certain pirates made a sudden descent upon the coast, and +having seized them, re-embarked immediately through fear of being +baulked of their prize. Patrick was brought to a remote extremity of +Ireland, and, like another Joseph, was sold to a prince of that +island, who, thinking him fit for nothing else, gave to him the care +of his sheep. This was an occupation very agreeable to Patrick, for +as love can avow itself more openly in solitude, he spent all the +night and all the day in loving and conversing with God, making +altars of the rocks and of the flowers, on which to make to Him the +entire sacrifice of his heart. + +"The astonishing increase of the flock, which multiplied every day +beneath his charge, soon became known to his master, who, being one +night asleep, saw among the obscure visions of his dreams his slave +Patrick rejoicing and surrounded by a great light, from whose mouth +issued a beautiful and resplendent flame, which touching his two +daughters, who he thought were by his side, burned them and reduced +them to ashes, leaving himself alone untouched by that sweet and +amorous flame. Frightened at such an astonishing vision, scarcely +had the day come, when he sent for his slave and related to him what +had occurred, asking him to explain the mystery of that terrible +dream. To which Patrick replied, with great tranquillity, that the +flame which he had seen come from his mouth could only be the Faith +of the most Holy Trinity, which for a long time he had desired to +preach to him and his daughters. And further, that it was because +this doctrine would make no impression on his soul the flame refused +to touch him, he dying blind in his infidelity. But because his +daughters would eventually be convinced of the truth, God permitted +them to be burned by the flame of His Faith and His Love, so as to +fulfil the end for which they were created. With this Patrick took +leave of his master and returned to his flock, leaving him so +confused that he did not know whether he should punish him for what +he had announced; all which happened in the manner the saint had +predicted. + +"In this way he lived some years, and our Lord, seeing that the +solitude in which His servant passed his life in the fields was very +great, sent to him as a companion his guardian angel, Victor, to whom +he could communicate his thoughts, and from whom he would receive +consolation in his slavery. But one night, being engaged in prayer, +and yielding his spirit to a divine ecstasy and rapture, he saw as in +a mirror a man of dignified appearance, whose dress gave him to +understand that he was of the same country as himself. This +personage seemed to be the bearer of a letter, the superscription of +which Patrick approaching to read, he saw these words: -- 'The voice +of the Irish people'. And as he hastened to open the letter to see +its contents, it seemed that within it were all the inhabitants of +Ireland, men, women, and children, even the little infants, all +crying out to him and saying, "Patrick, Patrick, we implore that you +will come to us and free us from this slavery." The Saint upon this +awoke, and consulting his angel, asked him to be released from his +captivity, since he had a great desire to return to his country and +assist those who had such need of him." -- 'Vida y Purgatorio de S. +Patricio', per el Doctor Juan Perez de Montalvan. Madrid, 1628, and +Madrid, 1664. + +[The visit to St. Germain in France is then described: his residence +with St. Martin of Tours, the journey to Rome, and all the other +events follow in detail, which Montalvan collected from Messingham, +Messingham's chief authority being the Life of St. Patrick, by +Jocelin. These are all briefly epitomised in the address of the +Angel Victor, as given by Calderon at the end of the first act.] + + +SCENE II., p. 262. + + +The story of Luis Enius, as given by Calderon in this long address, +seems to be entirely the invention of Montalvan. It is told in the +sixth chapter of his "Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio", and in the +edition of 1628 fills over forty pages. Calderon follows the +narrative very closely, but in one noticeable incident he greatly +improves upon his predecessor. This is in the celebrated skeleton +scene of the third act. The corresponding scene in Montalvan's story +is puerile enough. In Montalvan Luis Enius has no interview with the +skeleton, so powerfully described by Calderon. His conversion is +effected by a floating piece of paper which had eluded his grasp for +two nights, but which he seized on the third, and examined by a +mysterious light at the foot of a cross. On the paper he perceived +the representation of a skull, under which is written, "I am Luis +Enius". How utterly ineffective and commonplace this is compared +with the fine scene in Calderon need not be pointed out. + +The story of the vision of himself at Lerici, as recorded in some of +the lives of the poet Shelley, which is almost identical with that in +Calderon, was evidently suggested by this scene. Shelley's reference +to the "Purgatorio de San Patricio" in a note to "The Cenci" shows +the attention with which he read this drama. The "Embozado" which +Captain Medwin and others supposed to be the name of one of +Calderon's dramas, and which, as might be expected, Washington Irving +vainly looked for in Spain, was the "Hombre embozado," the "Muffled +Figure" of Calderon's "Purgatorio de San Patricio", act 3, scene i. + +A vivid description of this scene by Shelley to one of his friends +may have been mistaken for a circumstance that had actually happened +to the poet himself. + + +SCENE VIII. + +The "Athenaeum", in its elaborate review of the earlier translation +of this drama, thus writes:-- + +"With the prayer of St. Patrick considerable licence has been taken; +but its spirit is well preserved, and the translator's poetry must be +admired. + +"PATRICK. Thou art of all created things, +O Lord, the essence and the cause -- +The source and centre of all bliss; +What are those veils of woven light, +Where sun and moon and stars unite -- +The purple morn, the spangled night -- +But curtains which thy mercy draws +Between the heavenly world and this? +The terrors of the sea and land -- +When all the elements conspire, +The earth and water, storm and fire -- +Are but the shadows of thy hand; +Do they not all in countless ways -- +The lightning's flash -- the howling storm -- +The dread volcano's awful blaze -- +Proclaim thy glory and thy praise? +Beneath the sunny summer showers +Thy love assumes a milder form, +And writes its angel name in flowers; +The wind that flies with winged feet +Around the grassy gladdened earth, +Seems but commissioned to repeat +In echo's accents -- silvery sweet -- +That thou, O Lord, didst give it birth. +There is a tongue in every flame -- +There is a tongue in every wave -- +To these the bounteous Godhead gave +These organs but to praise his name! +O mighty Lord of boundless space, +Here canst thou be both sought and found -- +For here in everything around, +Thy presence and thy power I trace. +With Faith my guide and my defence, +I burn to serve in love and fear; +If as a slave, Oh, leave me here! +If not, O Lord, remove me hence!" + The "Athenaeum", Oct. 26, 1853. + + + +ACT THE THIRD. + +SCENE X. + +The account of St. Patrick's Purgatory given by Luis Enius in this +long narrative is taken immediately from the seventh, eighth, and +ninth chapters of Montalvan's "Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio", +which, as already stated, are themselves a translation from the +"Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum" of Messingham. The following +extracts are taken from the tract referred to in the Introduction, +the full title of which is as follows:-- + +"A BRIEF HISTORY OF SAINT PATRICK'S PURGATORY, AND ITS PILGRIMAGE. +Collected out of Ancient Historians. Written in Latin by the +Reverend MR. THOMAS MESSINGHAM, formerly Superior of the Irish +Seminary in Paris. [Paris, 1624.] + +"And now made English in favour of those who are curious to know the +Particulars of that Famous Place and Pilgrimage so much celebrated by +Antiquity. + "Printed at Paris, 1718." + + +"CHAPTER IV. + +"Of the Penitent Soldier, his going into this Purgatory, and of the +Messengers sent from God unto him. + +"There was a certain Soldier called Owen, who had for many years +served in King Stephen's Army. This Man, having obtained Licence +from the King, came to the North of Ireland, his Native Country, to +visit his Parents; and when he had continued there for some time, he +began to reflect upon the wickedness of the Life he had led from his +Infancy; upon his Plundering and Burning in the Army; and (which +grieved him more) upon the many sacrileges he had been guilty of in +Robbing and Spoiling Churches; together with many other Enormous +hidden Sins. Being then interiorly moved to repentance, he went to a +certain Bishop in that country, and Confess'd all his Sins unto him. +The Bishop severely reproved him, and let him know how grievously he +had provoked God's indignation. The Soldier hereupon being +exceedingly sorrowful, resolved to do penance suitable to the +greatness of [his] Sins. For the People of that country have this +Naturally, that as they are more prone to evil thro' Ignorance than +Men of other Countries,* so are they more ready and willing to do +penance, when they are made sensible of the Enormity of their Sins. +When the Bishop wou'd then enjoin him such penance as he thought +reasonable, the Soldier answered: "Since you say that I have offended +God so grievously, I will undergo a penance more grievous than any +other whatsoever. I will go into St. Patrick's Purgatory". The +Bishop, to diswade him from so bold an attempt, related unto him, how +many had perished in that Place; but the Soldier, who never feared +any danger, wou'd not be diswaded. The Bishop advised him to take +the Habit of the Canon Regulars, or that of the Monks; and the +Soldier declared he wou'd do neither till he had first gone into the +said Purgatory. Whereupon the Bishop, perceiving he was inflexible +and Truely penitent, wrote by him to the Prior of the place and +charged him to deal with the Soldier, as was usually done with those, +who desire to enter this Purgatory. The Prior, upon perusal of the +Bishop's Letter, after that he had observed all the other Formalities +required, conducted the Soldier into the Church, where he passed the +accustomed time of fifteen days in Fast and Prayer. Then the Prior +having celebrated +Mass gave him the Sacrament, called together his own Brethern, and +the Neighbouring Clergy, conducted him to the door of the Cave, +sprinkled him with Holy-water, and made him this speech.-- "Behold +thou shalt now enter in here, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, +and shalt walk thro' the Hollow of this Cave, till thou comest to a +Field, where thou shalt find a Hall artificially wrought; into which +when thou hast enter'd thou shalt find Messengers sent from God, who +shall tell thee in Order what thou art to do, and to suffer. When +these are gone and thou alone in the Hall, Evil Spirits will +immediately come to tempt thee; For so it happen'd to other that went +in here before thee, but be thou of Manly courage, and Stedfast in +the Faith of Jesus Christ." + + +[footnote] *It should be mentioned that this unfavourable opinion of +the Irish people is quoted by Messingham from the MS. of Henry of +Saltrey, an English monk, who appears never to have been in Ireland. + + +"The Soldier, who fear'd no Colours, was no way frighten'd at what +happen'd to others, having often before, Arm'd with Steel, fought +against Men, now arm'd with Faith, Hope and Charity, and confiding in +God's Mercy, went on boldly to fight against Devils; so recommending +himself to all their Prayers, and making the Sign of the Cross on his +Forehead, courageously enter'd the Door, which the Prior Locked on +the outside and Return'd in Procession with his Clergy to the Church. + +"The Soldier, being desirous to War a new and an unusual Warfare, +marched on boldly through the Cave, tho' alone, where the Darkness +thickening upon him, he lost all manner of Light. Soon after a +little glimmering light appear'd thro' the Cave, which led him to the +Field and Hall aforesaid. Now there was no more light in this Hall +than we usually have in winter after Sun-set. The hall had no Walls, +but was supported by Pillars and Arches on every Side, after the +Manner of the Cloyster of a Monastry. Walking awhile in this Hall, +and admiring the Beauty of its Structure, he saw the Inclosure, whose +Structure he also admired as being more Beautiful. Wherefore having +gone into it he sat down, and Casting his Eyes about him to take a +full View, he observed fifteen Men clad in white Garments, shorn and +dress'd like Monks, coming in, who saluted him in the name of the +Lord, and sat down. Then after a short pause, he that seem'd to be +their Prior and Chief, spoke to him after this Manner: 'Blessed be +the Omnipotent God, who put the good purpose into thy Heart of coming +into this Purgatory for the cleansing of thy sins: But if thou doest +not behave thyself Manly, thou shalt perish both Body and Soul. For +immediately after we leave this House there will come a multitude of +unclean Spirits, who shall inflict great Torments upon thee, and +threaten thee with greater: They will promise to lead thee to the +Door, by which thou hast enter'd in here, to see if by this means +they might deceive thee, and get thee to go out. And if thou be +overcome by the violence of their Torments, or frightened by their +Threats, or deceiv'd by their Promise, and consent to their Demands, +thou shalt be destroy'd both Body and Soul. But if thou be strong in +Faith, and trust in the Lord, so as not to yield to their Torments, +or Threats, or Promise; but despise them with a generous Heart, thou +shalt not only be purged of all thy Sins, but shall also see the +Torments which Sinners endure, and the Place of Rest and Bliss which +the Just enjoy. Have God then always before thine Eyes, and as often +as they Torment thee, call upon our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the +Invocation of His Name, thou shalt be deliver'd from whatever Torment +thou art in. Lay all these Things up in thy Mind quickly; for we can +stay here no longer, but recommend thee to Almighty God.' + +"So having given the Soldier their Blessing, they departed." + + + +"CHAPTER V. + +"Of the Coming of the Devils, and of the first Torment which the +Soldier endured. + +"The Soldier being thus left alone by the Holy Men, began to exercise +himself for a new kind of Warfare, and having put on the Armour of +Christ, stoutly waited for him, among the Devils, who shou'd first +provoke him to Battle. He put on the Coat of Mail of Justice, girt +his Mind, as he wou'd his Head, with the Helmet of the Hope of +Victory and of eternal Salvation, cover'd his Breast with the Shield +of Faith, and armed his Hand with the Sword of the Spirit, which is +the Word of God, devoutly calling upon Jesus Christ, that being +defended by this Royal Fortress, his insulting Enemies might not +conquer him. Nor did Divine Providence, which always protects those +who trust in it, fail him. Being then, as aforesaid, sitting alone +in the Inclosure, and with an undaunted Courage waiting for a Battle +with the Devils, he heard all of a sudden so great a Noise as if all +the Earth had been turn'd upside down: And indeed, if all the Men, +and all the living creatures on Earth, in the Sea, and Air, had +bellowed out together, it seemed to him, they cou'd not make a +greater Noise: so that, had he not been protected by Divine Virtue, +and happily instructed by the aforesaid Holy man, he wou'd infallibly +have lost his Senses. But Lo, after this horrid Sound, there +followed a sight of Devils more horrid; for there appear'd an +innumerable multitude of Devils, in ugly frightful shapes; who +saluted him in a fleering manner and said: 'Other Men who serve us, +do not come to our Habitation till after Death; but thou art pleased +to Honour our Company so much, as that thou wouldst not, like others +wait for Death; but hast alive delivered both Body and Soul unto us: +Thou has done this, that thou mayst receive the greater Reward from +us: Thou shalt then be abundantly rewarded as thou hast deserv'd. +Thou art come hither to be tortur'd for thy Sins; thou shalt then +have what thou seekest, that is, Pressures and Grief. Yet for as +much as thou hast hitherto served us, if thou wilt follow our +Counsel, and return from whence thou camest, we will for thy reward +lead thee safe to the Door by which thou hast enter'd in here; that +thou mayest live joyfully in the World, and not lose the sweet things +which thy Body is capable to enjoy.' + +"All these things they said with an intent to deceive him, either +with Terror or Flattery. But the stout Soldier of Jesus Christ was +not shaken by Terror, nor seduced by Flattery; and therefore +contemned with an equal Mind, as well those that wou'd terrifie, as +those that wou'd flatter him, in making them no Answer. + +"The Devils, perceiving they had been despised by the Soldier, cast +up a prodigious flame; and having tyed him Head and Foot, cast him +into the Fire, and with Iron Crooks dragg'd him to and fro, making a +most hideous Noise. Then the Soldier having on the Armour of God, +and remembering the Documents given him by the Holy Men, neither +forgetting the Arms of his Spiritual Warfare, called upon the Name of +his pious Redeemer, saying: Jesus Christ have pity upon me. +Whereupon he was so fully deliver'd from the said Flames, that the +least spark of all that great Fire did not appear. The Soldier +perceiving this mighty delivery, became more bold, and resolv'd to +fear no more those whom he saw so easily overcome by calling for the +Assistance of Jesus Christ." + + +"CHAPTER VI. + +"Of the Four Penal Fields to which the Soldier was Dragged. + +"Then the Devils leaving this Hall with an hideous Cry, and an horrid +Tumult separated themselves. Some of them dragged the Soldier thro' +a vast Region, that was so dark and obscure, that he cou'd see +nothing but the Devils. There blew a burning Wind in it, which cou'd +scarce be heard, but yet so dry that it seemed to Pierce his Body. + From thence they dragged him towards those bounds of the Earth where +the Sun rises at Midsummer, and being come thither, as unto the end +of the World, they turn'd to the right Hand and extended themselves +over a large Valley towards that part of the Earth where the Sun +rises in the Middle of Winter. Here the Soldier began to hear, at a +distance, the most lamentable Groans and Sighs of a vast Number of +People; and the nearer he drew, the more he heard their doleful +Lamentations. Being brought at last by the Devils to an exceeding +long and large Field, whose bounds were out of sight, he there +discover'd an infinite Number of Men and Women lying naked, flat on +their Bellies, with great Iron Spikes red hot fastening their Hands +and Feet to the Ground, and Miserably torturing them. Nay and +observed them now and then, biteing the Earth for Rage and Pain, +crying and bawling out; "Spare, spare; Pity, pity: when there was +none by, who wou'd Spare or Pity. On the contrary, the Devils ran +over them with great Scourges in their Hands lashing the Wretches, +and saying to the Soldier: "Thus shalt thou be tortur'd if thou dost +not agree to go back to the Door from when thou camest, and to which +we will conduct thee in Peace." But the Soldier calling to mind how +God had before delivered him, despised their Menaces: Then the +Devils cast him down on the Ground, and began to torture him. But +upon his invocating the Lord Jesus, they failed in their attempt. + +"Leaving then this Field, they drag him to another that was full of +great Misery; for between this and the former, there was this +difference, that whereas in the former the wretched People lay flat +on their Bellies, here they sat only on their Buttocks, some whereof +were surrounded with fiery Dragons, gnawing and biteing them after a +lamentable manner. Others had fiery Serpents twisted about their +Heads and Necks, fixing their Stings in their Hearts. Others in fine +had monstrous big Vultures perching upon their shoulders, and +sticking their horrid Bills in their Breasts as if they wou'd pull +out their Hearts. Besides all this, the Devils went running over +them with dreadful Scourges lashing and tormenting them, so as that +the poor wretches never ceas'd Crying and Lamenting. All these +Torments (say the Devils to the Soldier) shalt thou suffer, except +thou consent to return from whence thou camest. The Soldier despised +their Threats, and disabled them to do him any harm, by calling upon +the Name of Jesus. + +"Quitting then this place, they led the Soldier to the third Penal +Field. This was also full of People of both Sexes, who lay fastened +to the ground with so many Iron Spikes on Fire, fix'd thro' them, and +so thick set in their Bodies, that from Head to Foot there was scarce +any where, the Breadth of a Finger, which had not been pierc'd. +These Wretches cou'd indeed form a voice to cry; but it was such as +Men in the Point of death usually do: They were naked also, like the +rest, and were tortur'd over and above with a cold and burning Wind, +besides what they suffer'd by the Scourges of the Devils. Now when +the Devils wou'd torture the Soldier after this manner, by calling +upon the Name of Jesus he escaped untouched. + +"They drag him along to the fourth penal Field, which was full of +great Fires, in which all manner of Torments were to be seen. Some +were here hung up in the Air by the Hands with red hot Iron Chains; +others by the Hair; some by the Arms; others by the Legs with their +Heads downwards, and dipped into boiling Sulphur. Some hung by their +Nails, with Iron Crooks fixt in their Eyes, in their Ears, in their +Jaws in their Nostrils, in their Breasts, and in other parts of their +Bodies; others were fry'd in Pans; and others roasted by the Fire on +red hot Spits, which some of the Devils turned, while others basted +them with various melted Metals: Nor was the cruel scourging of the +Devils wanting, even among the dreadful Cries and Lamentations of +these wretched Souls. Here the Soldier saw many of his own +companions and knew them; yea, and saw all manner of Torments that +can be imagin'd, neither cou'd any Tongue express the various Cries +and Lamentations which he heard. The Devils having then expos'd all +these to the Soldier's view, said unto him: These, and a great many +more torments shalt thou endure, except thou go back out of the Cave. +But the Soldier despised their Threats, called upon the Name of +Jesus, when the Torments began, and so escaped." + + +"CHAPTER VII. + +"Of the Fiery-Wheel, Smokey-House, High Mountain, and Cold River to +which the Devils dragged the Soldier. + +"Then the Devils carry'd away the Soldier to an Iron Wheel, that was +red hot, and of a prodigious bigness. The Spokes and Stakes of this +Wheel were tarnished all round with Iron Crooks set on Fire, and on +them hung Men fixed. One half of the Wheel stood above, and the +other under ground: the horrid sulphurous Flame which issued from +the Earth and surrounded this Wheel, did exceedingly torment the Men +that hung on it. The same (say the Devils to the Soldier) that these +suffer if thou will not return, shalt thou endure, nay and even see +first what it is. Then they fasten'd Iron Bars to the Spokes of the +Wheel, and turn'd it about with such Celerity, that not one Man of +those that hung upon it cou'd be discern'd from another; for the +whole Wheel appear'd like a Circle of Fire: And when they had +fasten'd the Soldier to it and, by turning it about, lift him up in +the Air, he called upon the Name of Jesus, and came down unhurt. + +"From hence they dragged him towards a Certain House of an +extraordinary breadth, and so long that the End of it was out of +sight. When they drew near this House the Soldier stood still, being +afraid to go forward in the excessive Heat that came out of it. Then +the Devils said unto him: What thou seest are Baths, and whether +thou wilt or no, thou shalt Bath in them, as others do that are there +now. Immediately after, there were heard the most dismal Cries and +Lamentations imaginable proceeding from thence; and being brought in, +he saw a cruel and horrid sight. The Floor of this House was full of +round Pits join'd so close together, that no Man cou'd walk between +them: and each of these Pits was full of boiling Liquors made of +various Mettals, in which were plunged an infinite Number of both +Sexes, and of Divers Ages. Some were dipped down over Head; some to +the Eyes only; Others to the Lips; Some to the Neck; Others to the +Breast; Some to the Navel; Others to the Thighs; Some to the Knees; +Others to half the Leg; Some had one Leg only in; Others both the +Hands: And thus were all these boiling Pits or Cauldrons filled with +wretched Sinners, who set forth such dismal Groans and Lamentations +as were sufficient to chill the Blood of the most hard-hearted Man. +Here (say the Devils to the Soldier) shalt thou Bath, and with that +they lifted him up and endeavour'd to cast him into one of the +Cauldrons, but upon hearing the Name of Jesus they cou'd not prevail. +Whereupon they quit this House, and Carry the Soldier to an exceeding +high Mountain, where they show him a Number of Men and Women far +beyond any of the former. These Wretches sat Stark Naked with their +Toes bent, and look'd towards the North, as if they expected every +minute to expire that way. And while the Soldier stood wondering +what they waited for, one of the Devils said unto him: Possibly thou +wondrest what these People expect with so much trembling and fear, +but if thou agree not to go back, thou shalt soon know to thy cost +the cause of their Fear. The Devil had scarce made an end of these +Words, when a Whirlwind from the North rushed upon them, and blew +away the Devils, the Soldier, and all the People, and cast them over +the other side of the Mount into a River, that stunk, and was +intolerably cold: and as often as any of these wretched people +attempted to raise themselves over the Water, the Devils immediately +plunged them down. But the Soldier, who had always in mind his +Divine Assistant, called upon his Redeemer Jesus Christ, and so found +himself ashore on the Other Side of the River." + + +"CHAPTER VIII. + +"Of the Pit that cast up Flames, and of the High Bridge to which the +Devils led the Soldier. + +"The Devils were not as yet satisfied with all the injuries they had +offer'd to the Soldier of Jesus Christ, and therefore dragged him +towards the South, where he saw before him a dreadful Flame of +Sulphurous Matter rising out of a Deep Pit, and vomiting up Men red +hot like Sparks of Fire, and as the force of the Flames abated, +falling down again into the Pit. When they came near this Pit, the +Devils said to the Soldier: 'This is the entrance to Hell; this is +our Habitation: and for as much as thou hast hitherto carefully +served us, here thou shalt for ever continue with us; for all those +who serve us dwell here everlastingly. And when thou shalt once go +in, thou shalt eternally perish both Body and Soul. Notwithstanding, +if thou wilt obey now, and return to the Door of the Cave into which +thou didst enter, thou may'st go safe home to thine own Dwelling.' +The Soldier, who had so often experienced God's Assistance before, +despised both their Threats and Promises. whereupon the Devils, +enraged to see themselves so often contemned, cast themselves +headlong into the Pit, and thrust the Soldier down before them. Who +the further he descended the larger he observed the Pit to grow, and +the more sensibly he felt the pain of the Fire: Here the poor Man +was put to the extent of his patience; for the pain was so +intolerably acute, that for a while he had quite lost his Senses, and +was not able to pronounce the Name of Jesus! but Almighty God taking +pity of him enabled him at last to utter in some manner that Divine +Name: Whereupon the Flame shot him up so as that he fell upon the +Brink of the Pit: but so disordered, that for awhile he knew not +where he was, neither cou'd he tell whither to turn himself. Then a +new and unknown Legion of devils rushing out of the Pit surrounded +him, and asked what he did there? 'Our Companions (say they) told +thee this was the Gate of Hell; but they told thee a lye, and thou +shalt know it is so; for we are always accustomed to tell lyes, that +we may deceive those we cannot by telling the Truth. This is not the +Hell, but now we will bring thee to it.' And having so said, they +dragged the Soldier along to a great and spacious River, that was +cover'd all over with a stinking sulphurous Flame, and filled up with +Devils and damned Souls. Know thou (say they unto him) that under +this River lyeth Hell. Now there was a great and lofty Bridge over +this River, in which three things appear'd very formidable, and +almost impossible to be overcome by those who were to pass over it. +The First, that the Surface of the Bridge was so slippery that it was +impossible for any Man to fix his feet upon it; the Second, that the +passage was so straight and narrow, that no Man cou'd stand or walk +on it. The Third, that the Bridge was so high up over the River, as +to create a Horror in any that shou'd look down. Thou must (added +the Devils) go over this Bridge, and we will raise a mighty Wind +which shall cast thee down into the River, where our Fellows that are +there shall take thee and drown thee in Hell: For we are resolv'd to +try how safe thou shalt think it for thee to attempt so dangerous a +Thing: However, if thou wilt consent to go back to the Door of the +Dave, thou shalt escape this Danger, and return safe home to thine +own Country. + +"The faithful Soldier reflecting within himself, upon the great and +many Dangers from which his Pious advocate Jesus Christ had deliver'd +him, and calling often upon his Name boldly stepped in upon the +Bridge, and began to walk forward, feeling nothing slippery under his +Foot, but all firm and steady; because he firmly confided in God and +steadily adhered to his Promise: Nay the Higher he went up the +Bridge the broader he found the Passage; so as that in a short space +the way was equal to a Road where several carts may meet and pass. +Now the Devils who led the soldier by the Hands to the Bridge, not +being able to walk with him thereon, stood at the Bridge Foot, +expecting to see him fall down, but perceiving that he walked on +without any Danger, they raised a Cry and Noise so dreadful that it +put him into a greater fright than any of the Torments before had +done. Yet when he found that the Devils stood still, and did not +follow him, he went on securely, relying on the Assistance of his +Divine Protector. The Devils also that were in the River under the +Bridge, seeing him go on over their heads, ran about the Bridge, and +cast their fiery crooks and Darts at him; but being protected by the +Shield of Faith, he felt no harm, and so got clear of all their +Ambushes." + + +"CHAPTER IX. + +"Of the Celestial Glory and Terrestrial Paradise shewn to the +Soldier, and of his Conference with the Bishops thereon. + +"The invincible Soldier being now deliver'd from the Snares of the +unclean Spirits, saw before his Eyes an High Wall raised to the +Skies, the Beauty and Structure whereof was beyond Estimation. Its +Gate was adorn'd with costly Jewels, and divers precious Mettals, +that afforded a most agreeable Prospect. Having approached, as it +were within Half a Mile to it, the Gate seem'd to open, and sent +forth so sweet a smell, that, as it seem'd to him, if all the Earth +had been turn'd into Spice, it could hardly afford so agreeable a +perfume, which so refresh'd his tired Limbs and Spirits, that he +believed he could with ease undergo again all the Torments he had +endured. And looking in at the Gates, he discover'd a Door which +excelled the brightness of the Sun. As he stood then at a little +distance from the Gate, there came out to meet him so beautiful, so +great, and so orderly a Procession, as was never to be parallel'd to +his thinking in this World, with Crosses, Wax Tapers, Banners, and +Golden Palm Branches in the Hands of the Men that led this +Procession. After these follow'd Men of all Degrees and Orders, some +Archbishops, some Bishops, Abbots, Monks, Chanons, Priests, and +Clerks of every Degree, all cloathed in the sacred Apparel proper to +their Respective Degrees and Orders; and like in Shape and Colour to +those they wore, when they serv'd God here on Earth. Being come up +to the Soldier, they all embraced him with unspeakable joy, and +conducted him into the Gate with a concert of so Melodious an +Harmony, as could not be equalled by any in this World. + +"When the Musick ceased, and the Procession ended, two Archbishops +took the Soldier apart, in order, as was thought to shew him this new +World and the Glory of it, but first they blessed God, who had +strengthen'd his soul with so much constancy, in all the Torments +thro' which he passed, and which he so resolutely bore. + +"They then conducted him over all the pleasant places of this new +World, where his Eyes were so charmed, and all his Senses so ravished +that, in his opinion, neither the Tongues of the ablest Orators cou'd +explain, nor the Pens of the Nimblest Scriveners indite the Glory and +Splendor of the Things which he had seen and heard. So great was the +light of this happy Region, that as the light of a candle is Eclipsed +by that of the Sun, so was the light of the Sun by the brightness of +this. The Night doth never overshade this Land, for the light of a +Pure and Serene Sky keeps it constantly bright. All the Land was +like a pleasant Green Meadow diversified by various sorts of Flowers, +Fruits, Trees and Herbs; whose very perfumes, saith the Soldier, +wou'd keep him alive, were he allowed to dwell always there. The +Bounds of the Country he did not see for the greatness of its Extent, +only of that part by which he enter'd it; but discover'd in it so +great a multitude of both Sexes as he believes no Man ever saw in his +Life, or ever was together in any Age; of whom some dwelt apart in +one Community, and some in another; yet so as they passed from one +society to another, as they pleased. And by this means, it came to +pass, that they all enjoy'd one another's company; and choirs joyn'd +with choirs to sing God's Praise: And as one Star differs from +another in brightness; so was there an agreeable and harmonious +variety and difference in the Habits and Countenances of those thrice +happy People. For some of them seem'd to be clothed in Golden Vests; +others, in Purple, some in Scarlet; others in Blew; some in Green, +and others in White. And the Shape and Fashion of each habit was the +same as that which they wore in the World; so that the Soldier cou'd +easily discern of what Dignity, Order, and Degree, each of them had +been. Some wore Crowns like Kings, others carry'd Golden Palms in +their Hands. Glorious then and agreeable to the Eye, was the sight +of the inexpressible Harmony of their Melody, in Singing the Praises +of their Lord and Maker. Each of them rejoiced at his own Happiness, +and at that of every other. And all of them, who saw the Soldier, +Praised God upon his coming among them, and rejoiced at his +Deliverance from the Devils. Here was neither Heat nor Cold, nor +anything else that cou'd incommode or molest; but all things +peaceable, quiet, still, agreeable. Many more things did the +Soldier, see and hear in this happy Region than any Tongue or Pen +cou'd express. + +"When he had then satiated his Eyes and Ears, the Bishops spoke to +him after this manner." + + * * * * * + +"After this discourse the venerable Prelates took the Soldier up to +the Top of a Mountain, commanded him to look up and tell them what +colour the Sky over his head appear'd to him to be of. The Soldier +answer'd that it appear'd to him to be of the colour of Gold in a +fiery Furnace. 'That (say they) which thou see'st is the Gate of +Paradise. By this Gate those that are taken up from us go into +Heaven. And you are to know further, that while we continue here, we +are constantly fed once a day with Food from Heaven, but that you may +know what sort of Food, and how pleasant it is, you shall, God +willing, Feel and Taste it with us.' + +"These words were no sooner pronounced, when Certain Rays like flames +of Fire cover'd the whole Region, and after a while dividing into +smaller Rays sat upon the Heads of every one in the Land, and at last +enter'd into them. And among the rest, sat upon the Soldier's Head +also, and enter'd into him. The Soldier was wrapt up in such extasie +at the Sweetness of this Food, that he cou'd not tell whether he was +dead or alive, but this soon passed over. This is the Food (added +they) with which God feeds us once a day; but they that are carryed +hence from us enjoy it without End. The Soldier wou'd willingly stay +there if he were allowed to enjoy the deliciousness of that Food. +But instead of so sweet and desirable, mournful things are related +unto him. + +"For as much then (beloved Brother continue the Prelates), as thou +hast partly seen what thou didst desire to see, namely, the Rest of +the Blessed, and the Torments of Sinners; thou must now return by the +same Way thou camest hither; and if thou wilt for the future lead a +sober and godly Life; thou shalt be secure not only of this Rest; but +also of the Heavenly Mansions; but if thou wilt, which God forbid, +lead an ill Life and pollute thy Body with Sin; behold thou hast seen +the Torments that attend thee. Thou may'st now safely return; for +thou need'st not fear any of those Things; wherewith the Devils +attempted to frighten thee in thy way hither; because they dare not +approach thee any more, being afraid to appear before thee; neither +can all the Torments which thou hast seen hurt thee. The Soldier was +astonished at these Words, and began with Tears and Crys humbly to +beseech the Bishops, not to oblige him to return again to the Cares +of the World from so great a happiness. 'I cannot leave this place', +said he, 'for I fear I shou'd be intangled in the snares of the +World, so as to hinder me to come back here'; It shall not be as +thou wouldest, replied the Bishops; but as He who hath made thee and +us disposes, so shall it be; for He alone knows what is most +expedient for us all." + + +"CHAPTER X. + +"How the Soldier went out of this Purgatory, made a Pilgrimage to +Jerusalem, and how he spent the rest of his days. + +"Then Owen, the Soldier, having received their Blessing, set out, and +return'd the same way he came. The Prelates conducted him to the +Gate of Paradise, and shut it after him; and being sad and grieved to +be obliged to return again to the Miseries of this World, he went +back the same way till he came to the Hall, where he was first +infested by the Devils. He saw indeed the Devils on the way, but so +soon as they saw him, they vanished as if they had been afraid of +him. He also passed thro' the Places where he was before tormented; +but now they had no Power to hurt him. Being then come to the said +Hall, he went in boldly and Lo the fifteen Men, who had instructed +him in the beginning, met him, glorifying God, who had given him so +much constancy in his Torments, and having congratulated him upon his +victory, said unto him: 'Courage, Brother. We know thou hast +overcome the Torments which thou hast so manfully born; and that thou +art purged of all thy Sins. The Sun begins now to rise in thy +Country: Make haste then up to the Cave: For if the Prior, who when +he hath said Mass, shall come to the Door, finds thee not there, he +will lock the Door, as Despairing of thy salvation; and return to the +Church.' The Soldier hereupon, having first got their Blessing, +hasten'd up to the Cave, and at the very Minute that the Prior open'd +the Door, the Soldier appear'd. The Prior embraced him, glorified +God, and conducted him to the Church, and caused him to continue +there fasting and praying for fifteen Days. Then the Soldier put on +his Shoulder the mark of the Cross of Christ and went with great +Devotion to the Holy Land, to visit the Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus +Christ at Jerusalem, and all the holy Places round about it. Which +when he had Devoutly performed he came back, and went to Stephen, +King of England, to whom he had been before familiarly known, to +advise with him, after what Manner he might best for the future, +Warfare for the King of Kings, as he had heretofore carry'd Arms for +him. + +"It happen'd at the same time, that Gervasius Abbot of Lude, had got +by King Stephen's Recommendation a Place in Ireland for the building +of a Monastry. This Abbot sent one of his Monks, called Gilbert, to +the King, to be recommended by him to the King of Ulster, and then to +proceed from thence to Ireland in order to erect the said Monastry: +who being Kindly received by the King, complained very much that he +was a stranger to the Irish Language; I shall find you, by God's +help, says the King, an excellent Interpreter. Then he called Owen, +the Irish Soldier, commanded him to go with Gilbert, and to continue +with him in Ireland. Owen readily obey'd the King's Orders, adding +with all, that he was obliged in gratitude to serve the Monks, whose +Charity he had so often and so remarkably experienced. They then +went over to Ireland, and began to build the Monastry, which they +finished in two years and a half. The Monk Gilbert took care of the +things within the Monastry; and Owen the Soldier was a trusty +Procurator, and devout Minister of the Things abroad; as also a +faithful Interpreter: And having taken the Habit of a Monk; he lived +an Holy and Religious Life all the rest of his days, as the said +Gilbert testifieth. Whenever this Gilbert and the Soldier happen'd +to be alone; Gilbert was very inquisitive to know from him the +particulars of all the Things he had seen and felt in this Purgatory; +and the Soldier who upon pronouncing the word Purgatory, used to +burst out into Tears, told him all that he had seen and felt, which +Yet he wou'd willingly have concealed, had he not been persuaded, +that it might tend to the Edification, and Amendment of the Lives of +many. Nay and affirmed upon his Conscience, that he had seen with +his corporal Eyes all the Things which he related. Now it was by the +Care and Industry of this Monk, and upon the Testimony and Credit of +the Bishops of this part of the Kingdom, who had the account from the +Soldier's own Mouth, and that of the other Religious and godly men of +those Times that these things were committed to Posterity." + +The last chapter, which is "Of the Examination and Manifold Proofs of +this History," concludes with the following observations by +Messingham himself. + +"This History of Owen the Soldier, as to that part of it that is +related by Henry Salteriensis, I borrow'd from an ancient Manuscript +of the said Author now extant in the Library of St. Victor, and that +related by Mathew Paris, I took from his printed History of England: +But if after all, any Man chuse rather to oppose, than piously to +believe the same, let him consult the Holy Fathers, St. Gregory, +Venerable Bede, Dionysius Carthusianus, and carefully read the +various Revelations, Visions, and Relations not unlike these recorded +by them; to which as to things very probable they themselves were not +afraid to give Credit, and which they would not presume to deny." + +Calderon was not the only celebrated poet who made the Purgatory of +St. Patrick the subject of his song. Four centuries before the great +Spanish dramatist was born, a most elaborate and very lengthy poem +was written on the same attractive theme by Marie de France, the +first woman, as M. de Roquefort says,who ever wrote French verse, the +Sappho of her age.* Nor was Marie herself the only minstrel of that +early time who yielded to the fascination of this legend. Two +anonymous Trouveres of a little later period were unconsciously her +rivals in the attempt. M. l'Abbe de la Rue, in his valuable work on +Norman and Anglo-Norman Poetry, thus writes:-- + + +[footnote] *"Poesies de Marie de France", par B. De Roquefort. +Paris, 1820. t.i., p.1. + + +"Quoique la celebre Marie eut, au XIIIe siecle, donne une assez ample +histoire du Purgatoire de St.-Patrice, puisqu'elle est de plus de +trois mille vers, deux autres Trouveres anglo-normands qui +probablement ne connaissaient pas son poeme, volurent dans le siecle +suivant traiter le meme sujet."** + + +[footnote} **"Essais Historiques sur les Trouveres", etc., par M. +L'Abbe de la Rue. Caen, 1834. t. iii., p. 245. + + +These poems, still unedited, are to be found in the Cottonian and +Harleian MSS. The reader is also referred to the very interesting +and exceedingly rare volume, 'Owain Miles' (Edinburgh, 1837), and +'The Visions of Tundale' (Edinburgh, 1843), in the Prefaces to both +of which, by the late lamented W.B.D.D. Turnbull, much curious +information on the subject will be found. + + + + * * * * * + + +THE AUTHORITIES FOR THE LEGEND, +AS GIVEN BY CALDERON. + +ACT III., SCENE X. (the concluding lines.) + +The list of authorities at the end of the third act has been, and not +without reason, a source of great perplexity. Calderon is blamed +even by so thoughtful a critic as Mr. Ticknor for putting into the +mouth of Enius himself the names of a number of writers who have in +some way alluded to the Purgatory of St. Patrick, all of whom were of +periods long subsequent to the time at which he represents himself to +have lived, several of them being the very writers who nearly a +thousand years later described his own adventures. But this is quite +usual on the Spanish stage. There is scarcely a drama of Calderon +that does not end in the same way. The last speaker, whoever he may +be, and he is frequently the 'gracioso', abandons, for the last few +lines of his speech, his assumed character, and addresses the +audience as an actor in a brief epilogue. The list of authorities at +the end of "El Purgatorio de San Patricio" is nothing more. It is +simply an epilogue, perhaps a little longer than usual, which the +curious nature of the subject to some extent justifies. The manner +in which the names are printed is a different matter. But the reader +should recollect that this drama was not printed by Calderon himself, +but by his brother Joseph, who certainly in this instance at least +considered it no part of his duty as editor to verify the correctness +of the poet's references. Some of the confusion certainly is +attributable to Calderon himself, as he has separated and transposed +names for the purpose of adapting them to his versification. But +other mistakes remain behind which we may fairly divide between Don +Joseph and the printer. + +The original lines, as given in all the editions, that of +Hartzenbusch included, are the following:-- + +"Para que con esta acabe +La historia, que nos refiere +Dionisio el gran Cartusiano, +Con Enrique Saltarense, +Cesario, Mateo Rodulfo, +Domiciano Esturbaquense, +Membrosio, Marco Marulo, +David Roto, y el prudente +Primado de toda Hibernia, +Belarmino, Beda, Serpi, +Fray Dimas, Jacob Solino, +Mensignano, y finalmente +La piedad y la opinion +Cristiana, que lo defiende." + +Some of these names are obvious enough; it is with regard to those +that are rendered more obscure by the manner in which they are +presented that the difficulty arises. The list is taken for the most +part from the fourth chapter of Montalvan's "Vida y Purgatorio de San +Patricio", but with the names singularly disconnected and misplaced. +They are turned, too, so completely into Spanish as to be scarcely +recognised. Even in Messingham's "Florilegium", where they are all +to be found, though not in one place, they are not always correctly +printed. The following attempt at identification, now made for the first +time, will be found, it is believed, to be perfectly accurate. + +The first name, "Dionisio el gran Cartusiano," scarcely requires any +explanation. The work referred to, in an edition of which I have a +copy, is as follows:-- + +"D. Dionysii Carthusiani liber utilissimus de quatuor hominis +novissimis, etc.," Parisiis, 1551. + +The account "De Purgatorio Sancti Patritii" extends from fol. 235 to fol. 237. + +"Enrique Saltarense" is Henry of Saltrey, a Benedictine monk of the +Abbey of Saltrey in Huntingdonshire, who about the middle of the +twelfth century first reduced to writing the Adventures of Owain, or +Enius, in the Purgatory of St. Patrick. + +Of him Messingham writes thus. Referring to his authorities, he says:-- + +"What you shall find under the letter B, is taken from Henry +Salteriensis, an English monk of the Cistercian order, who had been +taught most excellent Precepts of a good Life as well as good Letters +by Florentianus, an Irish bishop, and Gilbert de Luda [Louth, in +Lincolnshire], Abbot of the Cistercian Monks, who also, being himself +well instructed, used to teach others the fear of the Lord as the +beginning of wisdom. . . . . And hence it is that he wrote unto +Henry Abbot of Sartis one Book of the Purgatory of St. Patrick and +one Book of the Pains of Purgatory. He flourished in the year of +Grace 1140." -- "A Brief History of St. Patrick's Purgatory". Paris, +1718. Preface. + +"Cesario," which carelessness or the exigency of metre has separated +from the "Esturbaquense," of the next line is Caesarius of +Heisterbach, a well-known hagiological writer of whom Adrien Baillet +thus speaks:-- +"Un religieux Allemand de l'ordre de Citeaux nomme 'Cesaire de +Heisterbach', qui mourut du tems de l'empereur Frederic II. travailla +aussi a la vie des Saints." He adds in a note:-- +"Cesaire se fit moine l'an 1198, au Val de Saint de Pierre, dit +autrement Heisterbach, pres de la ville de Bonne, dans le diocese de +Cologne, et ne mourut que pres de quarante ans apres. Il avoit ete +maitre des novices dans son couvent, et ensuite prieur de la maison +de Villiers." -- 'Discours sur l'histoire de la Vie des Saints. Les +Vies Des Saints'. Paris, 1739. T. i., p. xlvii. + +"Mateo Rodulfo," printed as the names of one author in Calderon, +separate into two persons in Messingham and Montalvan. The first is +the well-known Mathew Paris, whose 'Relation of the vision of Owen +the Irish Soldier' is expressly referred to in these words by +Messingham, who also alludes to him more fully in his preface. 'What +you shall find under the letter C,' says Messingham, 'is borrowed +from Mathew Paris, an English Benedictine Monk, who had from his +youth consecrated himself to a Monastic life, and polish'd most +excellent talents of nature with exquisite Arts and Sciences, and +adorn'd the same with all Christian virtues; being an Handicraft, a +Writer, a good Painter, a fine Poet, an acute Logician, a solid +Divine; and (which is much more valuable) pure in his Manners, bright +in the innocence of his life, simple and candid. Pitseus, upon the +year 1259, in which the said Mathew died, gives him a great many more +encomiums, which for brevity sake I hear omit.' + +The remaining half of 'Mateo Rodulfo' turns out to be Ranulphus or +Ralph, Higden, the Monk of Chester, whose Polychronicon is quoted +both by Messingham and Montalvan. The 'Domiciano' of the next line, +which is 'Dominicano' in Montalvan, has so completely got rid of the +name to which it belongs, that without the aid of Calderon's +authorities, Messingham and Montalvan, it would be impossible to know +who was meant. In Messingham the reference is to 'Jacobus Januensis, +the Dominican, in the Life of St. Patrick,' and in Montalvan to +'Jacobo Januense, o Genuense, Dominicano.' The person thus disguised +is the famous Jacobus de Voragine, the Dominican, author of 'The +Golden Legend,' who was Bishop of Genoa in 1292, and died at a very +advanced age in 1298. Of the 'Legenda Aurea', the fiftieth chapter +is devoted to St. Patrick. + +'Membrosio' is called 'Mombrisio' in Montalvan, and 'Mombrusius' in +Messingham. Correctly it was neither. The writer referred to is +'Boninus Mombritius', a fine copy of whose 'Sanctuarium' is in the +British Museum. At fol. 188, t. ii, there is a full account of the +Purgatory, the name of the adventurous visitor being 'Nicolaus'. Of +Mombritius, whom he calls Bonin Mombrice, the same writer (Baillet), +from whom I have already quoted, says:-- + +"Cet homme peu connu d'ailleurs etoit Milanois de naissance, +conseiller on fils de conseiller au senat de Milan; il vivoit du tems +de Galeas Marie, duc de Milan, qui fut tue l'an 1476, et du Pape +Sixte IV., qui mourut en 1484. Il s'etoit deja fait regarder comme +grammairien, poete, orateur et philosopohe par divers ouvrages, mais +aucun ne lui fit tant d'honneur que son 'Sanctuaire', qui est le +titre qu'il donna a son recueil d'actes des Saints dedie a Simonete, +secretaire des ducs de Milan." -- 'Discours', p. lvii. + +'Marco Marulo' is Marcus Marulus, Cap. xiv., Lib. 6, of whose work, +"De religiose vivendi institutione per exempla," is entitled "De +revelationibus infernalium poenarum." -- 'Apul Sanctam Coloniam. +Anno M.D.XXXI. + +In this there is an account of a certain Irish monk, "cui Petro nomen +fuit," who appears to have entered the Purgatory in vision. This is +probably the passage which Messingham and Montalvan quote, though a +different reference is given. + +'Maurolicus Siculus', who follows next in Messingham and Montalvan, +is omitted by Calderon. + +"David Roto, y el prudente Primado de toda Hibernia," are one and the +same person. This was the famous David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory, so +intimately connected in 1642 with the Confederation of Kilkenny, of +which an excellent history has been written by the Rev. Charles +Meehan, M.R.I.A. The epithet "prudente" seems to have been a happy +condensation of the many terms of encomium lavished upon this +celebrated man by Messingham. Alluding again to his classification +of his authorities under the first four letters of the alphabet, +Messingham says:-- + +"Whatever then you shall find written under the letter A, until you +come to the next letter, is taken from the Right Reverend Father +David Roth, Lord Bishop of Ossory, and Vice Primate of all Ireland, a +Man excellently well read in all parts of literature, an eloquent +Rhetorician, a subtle Philosopher, a profound Divine, a celebrated +Historian, a zealous chastizer of Vice, a steady Defender of +Ecclesiastical Liberty, a constant Assertor of the Privileges of his +Country, most devoutly compassionate upon the calamities of his +Nation, a diligent Promoter of Peace and Unity among the Clergy, and, +for that end, instituted the Congregation commonly called Pacifick, +in the year 1620, which has, with no little fruit and advantage to +the Clergy, spread itself over all the Kingdom, -- a Man, in fine, +who has left to Posterity many rare Monuments of his excellent +talents, the Catalogue of which I shall not here, for good reasons, +insert, but hope for more soon from him." + +"Belarmino," "Beda." Cardinal Bellarmin and Venerable Bede are too +well known to require any observations. + +"Serpi, Fray Dimas," cut into two lines, with the names transposed, +mean 'Fr. Dimas Serpi', one of whose works ('Aprodixis Sanctitatis, +etc', Romae, M.DC. IX.), though not the one referred to by +Messingham, is in the British Museum. In Montalvan the marginal note +gives, "Lib. de Purgatorio, cap. 26," as the reference. The German +translator of this drama (Brunn, 1824), misled by the punctuation of +the original, treats Dimas Serpi as two persons. + +"Jacob Solino," the next authority for the legend, is perhaps the +most perplexing in the list. Like twin stars that seem one to the +naked eye, but resolve themselves into two beneath the telescope, so +the single author of the printed text of Calderon appears distinct +persons in the pages of Montalvan. He gives them thus: -- "Jacobo," +"Solino," with a separate reference to each. Thus to "Jacobo," the +marginal reference is, "In sua historia Orientale;" and to "Solino," +"cap. 35," without the name of the work. + + From Messingham we at once learn who the former writer was. He calls +him in one place "Jacobus de Vitriaco," and in another more briefly, +"Vitriacus." The passage referred to in the marginal note of +Montalvan is given thus:-- + +"Further, Jacobus de Vitriaco, in his History of the East, chap. 92, +writes thus concerning this cave:-- 'There is a certain Place in +Ireland, call'd St. Patrick's Purgatory, into which whosoever enters, +except he be truly penitent and contrite in Heart, is snatched away +by Devils, and never returns. But he that with true contrition +confesseth his sins, and goes in there, tho' the Devils vex and +torture him, by Fire and Water, and many other Torments, yet is he +purged of all his sins: Now they that are thus purged, and return, +are never more seen to laugh or play; or to take pleasure in any +thing in this World, but constantly weeping and sighing, forget the +things that are behind, and stretch forward to the things that are +before them.' -- A Brief History of St. Patrick's Purgatory, Paris, +1718, pp. 9, 10. + +"Solino," who is so strangely united by Calderon's printer to +"Jacob," presents some difficulty. In Messingham's list of +authorities this name does not appear. The first French translator +of Montalvan (Bruxelles, 1637) merely gives the Latin form of the +name, "Solinus." The second French translator, Bouillon, in his +'Histoire de la vie et du Purgatoire de S. Patrice' (Troyes, 1642), +turns both names into French, thus, "Jacques Solin, en son Histoire +Orientale, chap. 26." This is doubly a mistake. The 'Histoire +Orientale' is the work of Vitriacus, as already pointed out; and +"chap. 26" refers not to that work, but to some unnamed writing of +"Solino." + +Of course the first name that suggests itself, as the author alluded +to, is that of Caius Julius Solinus. The latest date assigned as the +period when this celebrated writer flourished is A.D. 238 -- that is, +about 135 years before the birth of St. Patrick. To quote him as an +authority on the subject of St. Patrick's Purgatory would therefore +be a more absurd anachronism than any that has been pointed out in +this curious list. This difficulty appeared to me so strong, that +for a while I was led to believe that "Solino" was but a corrupted +Spanish form of "Joceline," or "Joscelino," as it is sometimes given, +whose 'Life of St. Patrick', written in the twelfth century, supplies +all the incidents of St. Patrick's early life recorded by Montalvan +and Calderon. He is also frequently referred to by Messingham. But +further reflection convinces me that the writer alluded to was in +reality the celebrated Latin author of the third century already +mentioned, Caius Julius Solinus. + +Solinus has of course no allusion to St. Patrick's Purgatory; but in +his celebrated work, 'Polyhistor', compiled, it is thought, chiefly +from Pliny's Natural History, he has a remarkable chapter on Ireland. +Some of his statements are doubtful, and all are very curious; one of +them at least depriving St. Patrick, by anticipation, of one of his +most famous miracles. This is the banishment of the serpents, which +it appears was first mentioned by Jocelin in the twelfth century. It +is expressly stated by Solinus, who wrote in the third century, that +in Ireland "There are no snakes and few byrdes," to use the language +of the old English translator, Arthur Golding. This statement of the +previous exemption of Ireland from venomous reptiles was warmly +disputed by Dr. David Rothe, the Bishop of Ossory, early in the +seventeenth century. It will be remembered that "David Roto" has +already been quoted as an authority on the subject of St. Patrick's +Purgatory, and it is his collateral controversy with Solinus that +probably led Montalvan, and subsequently Calderon, to suppose that +Solinus had in some way alluded to that legend. A valuable 'Life of +St. Patrick', by P. Lynch (Dublin, 1828), contains many allusions to +this subject, of which the following may be given as an example. + +"The objections which Doctor Roth raised to the testimony of Solinus +have as slender a foundation in reason. For Solinus (saith he) not +only mentions thisexemption of Ireland from venomous creatures, but +says further, that in Ireland there are few birds, and no bees; and +therefore concludes, that as he is mistaken in these latter +particulars, so he is not to be believed in the former,"-- p. 42. + +The author of this Life of St. Patrick goes on to say that Solinus +may have been perfectly accurate in these statements. That other +writers have alluded to the time when bees were first introduced into +Ireland, and that the migration of some birds thither, among others +the magpie, took place at a comparatively modern period. He does not +add, however, that Solinus states that the very dust of Ireland was +so distasteful to the bees, where they are now as much at home as in +Hymettus, that if it is scattered about their hives even in another +country they abandon their combs. Thus writes quaint Arthur +Golding:-- + +"There is not any Bee among them, and if a man bring of the dust of +the stones from thence, and strew them among Bee-hyves, the swarme +forsake ye combes." + +Another misstatement of Solinus may be pointed out. He says:-- + +"The sea that is betweene Ireland and Britayne, being full of +shallows and rough all the yeere long, cannot be sayled but a few +dayes in the summer time." + +With the following picturesque passage referring to the warlike +training of their children by the Irish, as recorded by a Roman +writer in the third century of the Christian era, we take leave of +Solinus, who we have no doubt was the author referred to by Montalvan +and Calderon under the name of "Solino:"-- + +"If a woman be delivered of a man childe, she layes his first meate +upon her husband's sworde, and putting it softly to his prettie mouth +gives him the first hansel of his sworde upon the very point of the +weapon, praying (according to the manner of their country) that he +may not otherwise come to his death, than in Battel and among +weapons."-- 'The Excellent and Pleasant Worke of Julius Solinus +Polyhistor. Translated out of Latin into English by Arthur Golding, +Gent.' At London, 1587. p. 105. + +The last name in the list of authorities on the subject of St. +Patrick's Purgatory is "Mensignano," with the reference in the margin +of Montalvan's 'Vida y Purgatorio' to his 'Florilegium'. This of +course is Messingham, out of whose book, aided by his own wild +imagination, Perez de Montalvan created the character of Luis Enius, +who is presented to us with such dramatic power by Calderon. + +Notwithstanding the length of these notes, the following summary, +taken with some corrections from the Introduction to the former +translation of this drama (1853), may still be useful:-- + +The curious history of Luis Enius, on which the principal interest of +the play depends, has been alluded to, and given more or less fully +by many ancient authors. The name, though slightly altered by the +different persons who have mentioned him, can easily be recognised as +the same in all, whether as Owen, Oien, Owain, Egan, Euenius, or +Enius. Perhaps the earliest allusion to him in any printed English +work is that contained in Ranulph Higden's "Polychronicon," published +at Westminster, by Wynkin de Worde, in 1495: "In this Steven's tyme, +a knyght that hyght Owen wente in to the Purgatory of the second +Patrick, abbot, and not byshoppe. He came agayne and dwelled in the +abbaye of Ludene of Whyte Monks in Irlonde, and tolde of joye and of +paynes that he had seen." The history of Enius had, however, existed +in MS. for nearly three centuries and a half before the Polychronicon +was printed; it had been written by Henry, the monk of Saltrey in +Huntingdonshire, from the account which he had received from Gilbert, +a Cistercian monk of the Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Luden, +or Louth, in Lincolnshire (Colgan, 'Trias Thaumaturgae', p. 281. +Ware's 'Annals of Ireland', A.D. 1497). Colgan, after collating this +MS. with two others on the same subject which he had seen, printed it +nearly in full in his 'Trias', which was published at Louvain, A.D. +1647, where with the notes it fills from the 273rd to the 281st page. +Messingham, as we have seen, had printed it earlier from other +sources, in 1624. Matthew Paris, however, had before this, in his +History of England, under the date 1153, given a full account of the +adventures of Oenus in the Purgatory, and in the few places that I +have compared his account with that given in Colgan, I find both +generally agreeing in substance, though not in words. In the folio +edition of Mathew Paris, London, 1604, the history of Oenus begins at +the 72nd and ends at the 77th page. In Montalvan's life of St. +Patrick, the adventures of Enius are given much more fully than +either in Matthew Paris or Colgan. In their versions of the story +the early life of Enius, previous to his undertaking to enter the +Purgatory, is passed over with a few general remarks as to its +extreme wickedness -- while they give in great detail all that he saw +and heard therein. Matthew Paris, for instance, opens the story of +Enius in these words: "Miles quidam Oenus nomine, qui multis annis +sub Rege Stephano militaverat -- licentia a Rege impetrata, profectus +est in Hyberniam ad natale solum, ut parentes visitaret. Qui cum +aliquandiu in regione illa demoratus fuisset coepit ad mentem +reducere vitam suam adeo flagitiosam: Quod ab ipsis cunabulis, +incendiis semper vacaverat et rapinis, et quod magis dolebat, se +ecclesiarum fuisse violatorem et rerum ecclesiasticarum invasorem +praeter multa enormia quae intrinsecus latebant peccata," etc. -- +'Mat. Par'., p. 72. In Henry of Saltrey's account, as given by +Messingham in 1624 and Colgan in 1647, this portion of the life of +Enius is despatched even with more succinctness, but in Montalvan's +'Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio', all his early crimes are +detailed nearly in the order and almost in the very words that +Calderon has used. Sir Walter Scott mentions, in his Border +Minstrelsy, that there is a curious MS. Metrical Romance, in the +Advocates' Library of Edinburgh, called, "The Legend of Sir Owain," +relating his adventures in St. Patrick's Purgatory; he gives some +stanzas from it, descriptive of the knight's passage of "The Brig +O'Dread;" which in the legend, is placed between Purgatory and +Paradise. This poem is supposed to have been written late in the +thirteenth century. It was printed for private distribution in +Edinburgh, in 1837, but from the very limited impression, there +having been but thirty-two copies struck off, it must always remain +extremely scarce. A cognate work, however, "The Visions of Tundale" +(Edinburgh, 1843), published by the same lamented scholar (Mr. +Turnbull) who edited the former work, though rare, is more accessible. + +THE END. + +BRADBURY, AGNEW, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Purgatory of St. Patrick +by Pedro Calderon de la Barca + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PURGATORY OF ST. PATRICK *** + +This file should be named 6371.txt or 6371.zip + +Produced by Sue Asscher asschers@bigpond.com + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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